Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin "Ben" Jonsonwas an English playwright, poet, actor and literary critic of the 17th century, whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours. He is best known for the satirical plays Every Man in His Humour, Volpone, or The Foxe, The Alchemistand Bartholomew Fayre: A Comedyand for his lyric poetry; he is generally regarded as the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth11 June 1572
Memory, of all the powers of the mind, is the most delicate and frail.
Ambition, like a torrent, never looks back.
There is no greater hell than to be a prisoner of fear.
Drink to me only with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup And I'll not look for wine.
Success produces confidence; confidence relaxes industry, and negligence ruins the reputation which accuracy had raised.
Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant; and of all tame a flatterer.
He who is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
All concord's born of contraries.
O! How vain and vile a passion is this fear! What base uncomely things it makes men do.
The pipe marks the point at which the orangutan ends and man begins.
He threatens many that hath injured one.
We are persons of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to be seen.
A good life is a main argument.
I have no urns, no dusty monuments; No broken images of ancestors, Wanting an ear, or nose; no forged tales Of long descents, to boast false honors from.