Hamlet -- II. 2.
MERCY.
The quality of mercy is not strained:
it droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven,
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd;
It blesses him that gives, and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptered sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice.
Consider this,--
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
Merchant of Venice -- IV. 1.
MERIT.
Who shall go about
To cozen fortune, and be honorable
Without the stamp of merit! Let none presume
To wear an undeserved dignity.
Merchant of Venice -- II. 9.
MODESTY.
It is the witness still of excellency,
To put a strange face on his own perfection.
Much Ado About Nothing -- II. 3.
MORAL CONQUEST.
Brave conquerors! for so you are,
That war against your own affections,
And the huge army of the world's desires.
Love's Labor's Lost -- I. 1.
MURDER.
The great King of kings
Hath in the table of his law commanded,
That thou shalt do no murder.
Take heed; for he holds vengeance in his band,
To hurl upon their heads thatbreak his law.
King Richard III. -- I. 4.
Blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries,
Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth.
King Richard II. -- I. 1.
MUSIC.
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted.
Merchant of Venice -- V. 1.
NAMES.
What's in a name? that, which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet.
Romeo and Juliet -- II. 2.
Good name, in man, and woman,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing.
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
But he, that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that, which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
Othello -- III. 3.
NATURE.
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
Troilus and Cressida -- III. 3.
NEWS, GOOD AND BAD.
Though it be honest, it is never good
To bring bad news. Give to a gracious message
An host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell
Themselves, when they be felt.
Antony and Cleopatra -- II. 5.
OFFICE.
'Tis the curse of service;
Preferment goes by letter, and affection,
Not by the old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to the first.
Othello -- I. 1.
OPPORTUNITY.
Who seeks, and will not take when offered,
Shall never find it more.
Antony and Cleopatra -- II. 7.
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows, and in miseries:
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
Julius Caesar -- IV. 3.
OPPRESSION.
Press not a falling man too far; 'tis virtue:
His faults lie open to the laws; let them,
Not you, correct them.
King Henry VIII. -- III. 2.
PAST AND FUTURE.
O thoughts of men accurst!
Past, and to come, seem best; things present, worst.
King Henry IV., Part 2d -- I. 3.
PATIENCE.
How poor are they, that have not patience!--
What wound did ever heal, but by degrees?
Othello -- II. 3.
PEACE.
A peace is of the nature of a conquest;
For then both parties nobly are subdued,
And neither party loser.
King Henry IV., Part 2d -- IV. 2.
I will use the olive with my sword:
Make war breed peace; make peace stint war; make each
Prescribe to other, as each other's leech.
Timon of Athens -- V. 5.
I know myself now; and I feel within me
A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience.
King Henry VIII. -- III. 2.
PENITENCE.
Who by repentance is not satisfied,
Is nor of heaven, nor earth; for these are pleased;
By penitence the Eternal's wrath appeased.
Two Gentlemen of Verona -- V. 4.
PLAYERS.
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts.
As You Like It -- II. 7.
There be players, that I have seen play,--
and heard others praise, and that highly,--
not to speak it profanely, that,
neither having the accent of Christians,
nor the gait of Christian, Pagan, nor man,
have so strutted, and bellowed,
that I have thought some of nature's journeymen
had made men and not made them well,
they imitated humanity so abominably.
Hamlet -- III. 2.
POMP.
Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust?
And, live we how we can, yet die we must.
King Henry V. Part 3d -- V. 2.
PRECEPT AND PRACTICE.
If to do were as easy as to know what were good
to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's
cottages princes' palaces. It is a good divine that
follows his own instructions: I can easier teach
twenty what were good to be done, than be one of
twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may
devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps
o'er a cold decree: such a bare is madness, the
youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel,
the cripple.
The Merchant of Venice -- I. 2.
PRINCES AND TITLES.
Princes have but their titles for their glories,
An outward honor for an inward toil;
And, for unfelt imaginations,
They often feel a world of restless cares:
So that, between their titles, and low name,
There's nothing differs but the outward fame.
King Richard III. -- I. 4.
QUARRELS.
In a false quarrel these is no true valor.
Much Ado About Nothing -- V. 1.
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just;
And he but naked, th
ough locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
King Henry VI., Part 2d -- III. 2.
RAGE.
Men in rage strike those that wish them best.
Othello -- II. 3.
REPENTANCE.
Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes,
Which after-hours give leisure to repent.
King Richard III. -- IV. 4.
REPUTATION.
The purest treasure mortal times afford,
Is--spotless reputation; that away,
Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barred-up chest
I-- a bold spirit in a loyal breast.
King Richard II. -- I. 1.
RETRIBUTION.
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to scourge us.
King Lear -- V. S.
If these men have defeated the law,
and outrun native punishment,
though they can outstrip men,
they have no wings to fly from God.
King Henry V. -- IV. 1.
SCARS.
A sear nobly got, or a noble scar,
is a good livery of honor.
All's Well that Ends Well -- IV. 6.
To such as boasting show their scars,
A mock is due.
Troilus and Cressida -- IV. 5.
SELF-CONQUEST.
Better conquest never can'st thou make,
Than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts
Against those giddy loose suggestions.
King John -- III. 1.
SELF-EXERTION.
Men at some time are masters of their fates;
The fault is not in our stars,
But in ourselves.
Julius Caesar -- I. 2.
SELF-RELIANCE.
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull
Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull.
All's Well that Ends Well -- I. 1.
SILENCE.
Out of this silence, yet I picked a welcome;
And in the modesty of fearful duty
I read as much, as from the rattling tongue
Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
Midsummer Night's Dream -- V. 1.
The silence often of pure innocence
Persuades, when speaking fails.
Winter's Tale -- II. 2.
Silence is the perfectest herald of joy:
I were but little happy, if I could say how much.
Much Ado About Nothing -- II. 1.
SLANDER.
Slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie
All corners of the world; kings, queens, and states,
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave,
This viperous slander enters.
Cymbeline -- III. 4.
SLEEP.
The innocent sleep;
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast.
Macbeth -- II. 2.
SUICIDE.
Against self-slaughter
There is a prohibition so divine,
That cravens my weak hand.
Cymbeline -- III. 4.
TEMPERANCE.
Though I look old, yet am I strong and lusty:
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood;
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility:
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly.
As You Like It -- II. 3.
THEORY AND PRACTICE.
There was never yet philosopher,
That could endure the tooth-ache patiently;
However, they have writ the style of the gods,
And made a pish at chance and sufferance.
Much Ado About Nothing -- V. 1.
TREACHERY.
Though those, that are betrayed,
Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor
Stands in worse case of woe.
Cymbeline -- III. 4.
VALOR.
The better part of valor is--discretion.
King Henry IV., Part 1st -- V. 4.
When Valor preys on reason,
It eats the sword it fights with.
Antony and Cleopatra -- III. 2.
What valor were it, when a cur doth grin
For one to thrust his band between his teeth,
When he might spurn him with his foot away?
King Henry VI., Part 1st -- I. 4.
WAR.
Take care
How you awake the sleeping sword of war:
We charge you in the name of God, take heed.
King Henry IV., Part 1st -- I. 2.
WELCOME.
Welcome ever smiles,
And farewell goes out sighing.
Troilus and Cressida -- III. 3.
WINE.
Good wine is a good familiar creature,
if it be well used.
Othello -- II. 3.
O thou invisible spirit of wine,
if thou hast no name to be known by,
let us call thee --devil!. . . O, that
men should put an enemy in their mouths,
to steal away their brains!
that we should with joy, revel,
pleasure, and applause,
transform ourselves into beasts!
Othello -- II. 3.
WOMAN.
A woman impudent and mannish grown
Is not more loathed than an effeminate man.
Troilus and Cressida -- III. 3.
WORDS.
Words without thoughts
never to heaven go.
Hamlet -- III. 3.
Few words shall fit the trespass best,
Where no excuse can give the fault amending.
Troilus and Cressida -- III. 2.
WORLDLY CARE.
You have too much respect upon the world:
They lose it, that do buy it with much care.
Merchant of Venice -- I. 1.
WORLDLY HONORS.
Not a man, for being simply man,
Hath any honor; but honor for those honors
That are without him, as place, riches, favor,
Prizes of accident as oftas merit;
Which when they fall, as being slippery standers,
The love that leaned on them, as slippery too,
Do one pluck down another, and together
Die in the fall. But 'tis not so with me.
Troilus and Cressida -- III. 3.
Table Of Contents
PREFACE
A BRIEF LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
THE TEMPEST
AS YOU LIKE IT
THE WINTER'S TALE
KING LEAR
TWELFTH NIGHT
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
ROMEO AND JULIET
PERICLES
HAMLET
CYMBELINE
MACBETH
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
TIMON OF ATHENS
OTHELLO
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
QUOTATIONS FROM SHAKESPEARE
This Book is in the Public Domain
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