“An two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind.”
“I have sounded the very base-string of humility.”
Source: Shakspeare's Dramatic Works: With Explanatory Notes. To which is Now Added, a Copious Index to the Remarkable Passages and Words
“I think the King is but a man as I am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me.”
“Ingratitude is monstrous; and for the multitude to be ingrateful were to make a monster of the multitude; of which we being members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous members.”
Source: The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare
“Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn but I shall have my pocket picked?”
“We are not ourselves When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind To suffer with the body.”
Source: The Mind of Shakspeare as Exhibited in His Works
“Instinct is a great matter. I was now a coward on instinct.”
Source: Histories of Shakespeare in Plain and Simple English (a Modern Translation and the Original Version)
“Boundless intemperance In nature is a tyranny. It hath been Th' untimely emptying of the happy throne And fall of many kings.”
Source: Macbeth
“Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them; But, in the less foul profanation.”
“A woman that is like a German clock, Still a-repairing, ever out of frame, And never going aright, being a watch, But being watched that it may still go right!”
Source: Love's Labour's Lost
“Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.”
“To offend and judge are distinct offices, And of opposed natures.”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“Do all men kill the things they do not love?”
Source: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English
“There's never a villain dwelling in all Denmark But he's an arrant knave.”
“Knavery's plain face is never seen till used.”
Source: Othello: Third Series
“Like the lily That once was mistress of the field and flourished, I'll hang my head and perish.”
Source: The Dramatic Works
“Many a man's tongue shakes out his master's undoing.”
Source: All's Well That Ends Well
“What many men desire--that 'many' may be meant By the fool multitude that choose by show, Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach, Which pries not to th' interior, but like the martlet Builds in the weather on the outward wall, Even in the force and road of casualty.”
“O, Men's vows are women's traitors! All good seeming, By thy revolt, O husband, shall be thought Put on for villainy, not born where't grows, But worn a bait for ladies.”
Source: Cymbeline
“If you shall marry, You give away this hand, and this is mine; You give away heaven's vows, and those are mine; You give away myself, which is known mine; For I by vow am so embodied yours That she which marries you must marry me-- Either both or none.”
Source: The Complete Works of William Shakspeare
“A time, methinks, too short To make a world-without-end bargain in.”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“Let husbands know Their wives have sense like them. They see, and smell, And have their palates both for sweet and sour, As husbands have.”
“Take physic, pomp; Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou mayst shake the superflux to them And show the heavens more just.”
Source: The Plays of William Shakspeare ...
“Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so; Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.”
Source: Measure for Measure
“Whereto serves mercy But to confront the visage of offense?”
Source: The Complete Works of Shakspeare, Revised from the Best Authorities : with a Memoir, and Essay on His Genius
“Open thy gate of mercy, gracious God, My soul flies through these wounds to seek out thee.”
Source: First Tetralogy In Plain and Simple English: Includes Henry VI Parts 1 - 3 & Richard III
“To move wild laughter in the throat of death? It cannot be; it is impossible: Mirth cannot move a soul in agony.”
Source: Comedies of Shakespeare in Plain and Simple English (a Modern Translation and the Original Version)
“What should a man do but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within's two hours.”
Source: Hamlet: Revised Edition
“So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown When judges have been babes; great floods have flown From simple sources, and great seas have dried When miracles have by the greatest been denied.”
Source: Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare
“Can it be That modesty may more betray our sense Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough, Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary And pitch our evils there?”
Source: Measure for Measure
“All impediments in fancy's course Are motives of more fancy.”
Source: All's Well That Ends Well
“No place indeed should murder sanctuarize; Revenge should have no bounds.”
“For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ.”
“Omission to do what is necessary Seals a commission to a blank of danger; And danger, like an ague, subtly taints Even then when we sit idly in the sun.”
Source: The family Shakspeare
“If't be summer news, Smile to't before; if winterly, thou need'st But keep that count'nance still.”
Source: Cymbeline
“I hourly learn a doctrine of obedience.”
Source: The Tragedy of Anthony and Cleopatra
“For now I stand as one upon a rock environed with a wilderness of sea, who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave, expecting ever when some envious surge will in his brinish bowels swallow him.”
Source: Titus Andronicus and Timon of Athens: Two Classical Plays
“Very good orators, when they are out, they will spit; and for lovers, lacking--God warn us!--matter, the cleanliest shift is to kiss.”
Source: Mr. William Shakespeare: A midsummer night's dream. The merchant of Venice. As you like it. The taming of the shrew
“The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre Observe degree, priority, and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, Office, and custom, in all line of order.”
“I will not be sworn but love may transform me to an oyster; but I'll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster of me he shall never make me such a fool.”
Source: The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare: With the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators
“Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning; One pain is less'ned by another's anguish; Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning; One desperate grief cures with another's languish.”
Source: CliffsComplete Romeo and Juliet
“You undergo too strict a paradox, Striving to make an ugly deed look fair.”
Source: The Plays of Shakespeare
“O that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth! Then with passion would I shake the world, And rouse from sleep that fell anatomy Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice, Which scorns a modern invocation.”
Source: Histories of Shakespeare in Plain and Simple English (a Modern Translation and the Original Version)
“I do love My country's good with a respect more tender, More holy and profound, then mine own life, My dear wife's estimate, her womb increase, And treasure of my loins.”
Source: The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare: With the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators: Comprehending a Life of the Poet, and an Enlarged History of the Stage
“Hear me profess sincerely: had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike, and none less dear than thine and my good Marcius, I had rather have eleven die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.”
Source: The Complete Works of William Shakspeare
“Let there be gall enough in thy ink, though thou write with a goose-pen, no matter.”
Source: The Plays of William Shakespeare in Ten Volumes: With Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators
“I have ventured, Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, This many summers in a sea of glory, But far beyond my depth. My high-blown pride At length broke under me, and now has left me, Weary and old with service, to the mercy Of a rude stream that must for ever hide me.”
“It may do good; pride hath no other glass To show itself but pride, for supple knees Feed arrogance and are the proud man's fees.”
Source: The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare: From the Text of Johnson, Stevens, and Reed; with Glossarial Notes, His Life, and a Critique on His Genius & Writings
“O, this life Is nobler than attending for a check, Richer than doing nothing for a robe, Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk: Such pain the cap of him that makes him fine Yet keeps his book uncrossed.”
“I do not hate a proud man, as I do hate the engendering of toads.”
Source: Troilus and Cressida: Third Series, Revised Edition
