“He is the most wretched of men who has never felt adversity.”
“Then know, that I have little wealth to lose. A man I am, crossed with adversity; My riches are these poor habiliments, Of which if you should here disfurnish me, You take the sum and substance that I have.”
Source: The Complete Works of William Shakspeare
“When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again.”
Source: The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare: Timon of Athens. Troilus and Cressida. Cymbeline. King Lear. Vol. 8
“Bosom upon my counsel; You'll find it wholesome.”
“Then let thy love be younger than thyself, Or thy affection cannot hold the bent.”
“Affection faints not like a pale-faced coward, But then woos best when most his choice is froward.”
Source: The Complete Sonnets and Poems
“Henceforth, I'll bear Affliction till it do cry out itself, 'Enough, enough, and die.”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“Affliction may one day smile again; and till then, sit thee down, sorrow!.”
Source: The plays of William Shakespeare
“Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man.”
Source: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
“No longer mourn for me when I am dead Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell Give warning to the world that I am fled From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell.”
“I heard a bird so sing, Whose music, to my thinking, pleased the king.”
Source: King John. King Richard II. King Henry IV, part 1. King Henry IV, part 2. Henry V. King Henry VI, part 1. King Henry VI, part 2. King Henry VI, part 3. King Richard III. King Henry VIII. Titus Andronicus. Pericles. Glossary
“The benediction of these covering heavens Fall on their heads like dew, for they are worthy To inlay heaven with stars.”
Source: The plays of William Shakespeare: in twenty-one volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators, to which are added notes
“Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to you that Fortune is blind.”
Source: Henry V
“Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, finds safer footing than blind reason stumbling without fear: to fear the worst oft cures the worse.”
Source: Troilus and Cressida In Plain and Simple English: A Modern Translation and the Original Version
“I will go wash; And when my face is fair, you shall perceive Whether I blush or no.”
Source: The Complete Works of William Shakspeare
“Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man.”
“Tis gold Which buys admittance--oft it doth--yea, and makes Diana's rangers false themselves, yield up This deer to th' stand o' th' stealer: and 'tis gold Which makes the true man kill'd and saves the thief, Nay, sometimes hangs both thief and true man.”
Source: Cymbeline: Second Series
“What, shall one of us, That struck for the foremost man of all this world But for supporting robbers--shall we now Contaminate our fingers with base bribes, And sell the mighty space of our large honors For so much trash as may be grasped thus?”
Source: The Family Shakespeare: In One Volume, in which Nothing is Added to the Original Text, But Those Words and Expressions are Omitted which Cannot with Propriety be Read Aloud in a Family
“Who finds the heifer dead and bleeding fresh And sees fast-by a butcher with an axe, But will suspect 'twas he that made the slaughter?”
Source: The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare
“No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape; back- wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?”
Source: Measure for Measure
“Things past redress are now with me past care”
“I have more care to stay than will to go.”
“What infinite heart's-ease Must kings neglect that private men enjoy! And what have kings that privates have not too, Save ceremony, save general ceremony?”
“And what art thou, thou idol Ceremony? What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?”
Source: King Henry V: Third Series
“O Ceremony, show me but thy worth? What is thy soul of adoration? Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form, Creating awe and fear in other men?”
Source: King Henry V: Third Series
“Ever note, Lucilius, When love begins to sicken and decay It useth an enforced ceremony. There are no tricks in plain and simple faith; But hollow men, like horses hot at hand, Make gallant show and promise of their mettle; But when they should endure the bloody spur, They fall their crests, and like deceitful jades Sink in the trial.”
Source: Making Sense of Julius Caesar! a Students Guide to Shakespeare's Play (Includes Study Guide, Biography, and Modern Retelling)
“I will not choose what many men desire, Because I will not jump with common spirits And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.”
“Preferment goes by letter and affection, And not by old gradation, where each second Stood heir to th's first.”
Source: Four Tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth
“If it be aught toward the general good, Set honor in one eye and death i' th' other, And I will look on both indifferently; For let the gods so speed me as I love The name of honor more than I fear death.”
Source: Untitled
“That is the way to lay the city flat, To bring the roof to the foundation, And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges, In heaps and piles of ruin.”
Source: The Tragedy of Coriolanus
“Thus we play the fool with the time and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us.”
“If it be honor in your wars to seem The same you are not,--which, for your best ends, You adopt your policy--how is it less or worse, That it shall hold companionship in peace With honour, as in war: since that to both It stands in like request?”
Source: Complete Works
“Confess yourself to heaven, Repent what's past, avoid what is to come, And do not spread the compost on the weeds To make them ranker.”
Source: Making Sense of Hamlet! a Students Guide to Shakespeare's Play (Includes Study Guide, Biography, and Modern Retelling)
“A stirring dwarf we do allowance give Before a sleeping giant.”
Source: Shakspeare's Dramatic Works: With Explanatory Notes. To which is Now Added, a Copious Index to the Remarkable Passages and Words
“He that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding. Have I not tarried? Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting. Have I not tarried? Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening. Still have I tarried. Ay, to the leavening; but here's yet in the word 'hereafter' the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking; nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips.”
Source: The Plays of Shakspeare
“Would the cook were o' my mind!”
Source: The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works
“By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; It yearns me not if me my garments wear; Such outward things dwell not in my desires: But if it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul alive.”
Source: Works, containing his plays and poems: to which is added a glossary
“How many cowards whose hearts are all as false As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars, Who inward searched, have livers white as milk!”
Source: The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works
“The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover, Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank, Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burrs, Losing both beauty and utility.”
“The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark When neither is attended; and I think The nightingale, if she should sing by day When every goose is cackling, would be thought No better a musician than the wren. How many thing by season seasoned are To their right praise and true perfection!”
“Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale. Light thickens, and the crow Makes wing to th' rooky wood. Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, While night's black agents to their prey do rouse.”
“Men so noble, However faulty, yet should find respect For what they have been: 'tis a cruelty To load a falling man.”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“The seeming truth which cunning times put on to entrap the wisest.”
“Thou speak'st like him's untutored to repeat: Who makes the fairest show means most deceit.”
Source: A Reconstructed Text of Pericles, Prince of Tyre
“But when the fox hath once got in his nose, He'll soon find means to make the body follow.”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“So may the outward shows be least themselves; The world is still deceived with ornament.”
“Whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise.”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“What, gone without a word? Ay, so true love should do; it cannot speak, For truth hath better deeds than words to grace it.”
“For truth hath better deeds than words to grace it.”
“Why, all delights are vain, but that most vain Which, with pain purchased, doth inherit pain: As, painfully to pore upon a book, To seek the light of truth, which truth the while Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look.”
Source: Love's Labour's Lost: Third Series
