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Quote by Ben Jonson

Work

Works: Collated with all the former editions, and corrected with notes critical and explanatory

This book is a definitive compilation of the author's writings, featuring corrections and enhancements from earlier publications. It includes critical and explanatory notes that provide insight into the text and its context. more

Author

Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson, a renowned English playwright and poet, was born on June 11, 1572, and died on August 6, 1637. His works have had a profound impact on the development of drama, and he is considered one of the greatest English playwrights, second only to Shakespeare. more

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“Monarchies, aristocracies, and religions are all based upon that large defect in your race - the individual's distrust of his neighbor, and his desire, for safety's or comfort's sake, to stand well in his neighbor's eye. These institutions will always remain, and always flourish, and always oppress you, affront you, and degrade you, because you will always be and remain slaves of minorities. There was never a country where the majority of the people were in their secret hearts loyal to any of these institutions.”

“Why has mankind had such a craving to be imposed upon? Why this lust after imposing creeds, imposing deeds, imposing buildings, imposing language, imposing works of art? The thing becomes an imposition and a weariness at last. Give us things that are alive and flexible, which won't last too long and become an obstruction and a weariness. Even Michelangelo becomes at last a lump and a burden and a bore. It is so hard to see past him.”

“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what's good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”