Life & Wisdom Quote by Ben Jonson

Honor here is not some misty halo; it is an accessory, and that choice is doing the heavy lifting. A "brooch" sits on the outside. It’s visible, judged, and, crucially, detachable. Jonson’s line flatters the ideal of integrity while quietly admitting how social honor actually functions in a status economy: as a signal other people can read at a glance. Put it "in a man's hat" and you’ve made virtue part of public dress, not private conscience. Hats come off, hats get swapped, hats get tipped. The image carries a sly warning about how easily reputation can become costume.

The phrasing also courts a very masculine, early modern code: honor as the thing that keeps a man legible to other men. In Jonson’s London - a world of courts, patronage, duels, and aspiring social climbers - honor was both moral currency and survival tactic. To wear it "at all times" is aspirational, but it also implies a performance that never ends. You don’t just have honor; you keep it pinned on, maintained, polished, safe from theft or stain.

Jonson, a poet-dramatist famous for satirizing frauds and pretenders, leaves just enough ambiguity to make the line bite. Yes, honor is "good" - useful, even beautiful. But it’s also something you might wear to be seen wearing. The subtext: if your virtue depends on the hat, you’re already negotiating with vanity.