“I know them, yea,
And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple;
Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong'ring boys,
That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave, and slander,
Go antickly, and show outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst;
And this is all.”
Source: Much ado about nothing. Love's labour's lost. Midsummer night's dream. Merchant of Venice. As you like it. Taming of the shrew. All's well that ends well. Twelfth night
“They that have voice of lions and act of hares,--are they not monsters?”
“Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud.”
“My rage is gone,
And I am struck with sorrow. Take him up.
Help, three o' th' chiefest soldiers; I'll be one.
Beat thou the drum, that it speaks mournfully,
Trail your steel spikes. Though in this city he
Hath widowed and unchilded many a one,
Which to this hour bewail the injury,
Yet he shall have a noble memory.
Assist.”
Source: The Works of Shakespeare: The Text Regulated by the Recently Discovered Portfolio of 1632, Containing Early Manuscript Emendations ; with a History of the Stage, a Life of the Poet, and an Introduction to Each Play
“Set we forward; let
A Roman and a British ensign wave
Friendly together. So through Lud's town march,
And in the temple of the great Jupiter
Our peace we'll ratify, seal it with feasts.
Set on there! Never was a war did cease,
Ere bloody hands were washed, with such a peace.”
Source: The New Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works
“Myself will straight aboard, and to the state
This heavy act with heavy heart relate.”
Source: The plays (poems) of Shakespeare, ed. by H. Staunton, the illustr. by J. Gilbert engr. by the brothers Dalziel
“Well, while I live I'll fear no other thing
So sore as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.”
Source: The Dramatic Works of Shakespeare
“Lords, I protest my soul is full of woe
That blood should sprinkle me to make me grow.
Come, mourn with me for what I do lament,
And put sullen black incontinent.
I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land
To wash this blood off from my guilty hand.
March sadly after. Grace my mournings here
In weeping after this untimely bier.”
Source: Histories of Shakespeare in Plain and Simple English (a Modern Translation and the Original Version)
“Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
That would reduce these bloody days again
And make poor England weep in streams of blood!
Let them not live to taste this land's increase
That would with treason wound this fair land's peace!
Now civil wounds are stopped, peace lives again:
That she may long live here, God say amen!”
Source: The plays of William Shakespeare
“A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain;
But that's all one, our play is done,
And we'll strive to please you every day.”
“Fight valiantly to-day; and yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it, for thou art framed of the firm truth of valor.”
Source: The works of William Shakespeare: comprising his dramatic and poetical works, complete
“There is no love-broker in the world can more prevail in man's commendation with woman than report of valor.”
Source: The works of William Shakespeare
“What valor were it, when a cur doth grin, for one to thrust his hand between his teeth, when he might spurn him with his foot away?”
Source: King Henry the Sixth: Parts I, II, and III
“We must be brief when traitors brave the field.”
Source: Histories of Shakespeare in Plain and Simple English (a Modern Translation and the Original Version)
“Like one who draws the model of a house beyond his power to build it who, half through, gives o'er, and leaves his part-created cost a naked subject to the weeping clouds.”
Source: Henry IV
“It is a sin to be a mocker.”
Source: The Merchant of Venice
“For though the camomile, the more it is trodden on the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted, the sooner it wears.”
Source: The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare: Richard II. Henry IV, pt. I
“A woman's fitness comes by fits.”
Source: Cymbeline
“Speak, what trade art thou?
Why, sir, a carpenter.
Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?
What does thou with thy best apparel on?”
Source: Julius Caesar
“No, by my soul, I never in my life
Did hear a challenge urged more modestly,
Unless a brother should a brother dare
To gentle exercise and proof of arms.”
Source: Histories of Shakespeare in Plain and Simple English (a Modern Translation and the Original Version)
“Against ill chances men are ever merry,
But heaviness foreruns the good event.”
“This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
That even our loves should with our fortunes change,
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“That we would do
We should do when we would, for this 'would' changes,
And hath abatements and delays as many
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents,
And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh,
That hurts by easing.”
Source: The plays of William Shakespeare: With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators
“All things that we ordained festival
Turn from their office to black funeral--
Our instruments to melancholy bells,
Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast;
Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;
Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse;
And all things change them to the contrary.”
Source: Romeo and Juliet
“The love of wicked men converts to fear;
That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both
To worthy danger and deserved death.”
Source: King Richard II: Third Series
“Nay, had I pow'r, I should
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,
Uproar the universal peace, confound
All unity on earth.”
Source: Macbeth
“As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown.”
Source: Cymbeline: Second Series
“Of chastity, the ornaments are chaste.”
Source: The Shakespearian Dictionary, Forming a General Index to All the Popular Expressions, and Most Striking Passages in the Works of Shakespeare, from a Few Words to Fifty Or More Lines ... By T. Dolby
“Love and meekness, lord,
Become a churchman better than ambition:
Win straying souls with modesty again,
Cast none away.”
Source: Making Sense of Henry VIII! a Students Guide to Shakespeare's Play (Includes Study Guide, Biography, and Modern Retelling)
“My prophecy is but half his journey yet,
For yonder walls, that pertly front your town,
Yon towers, whose wanton tops do buss the clouds,
Must kiss their own feet.”
Source: The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare: Timon of Athens. Troilus and Cressida. Cymbeline. King Lear. Vol. 8
“Comets importing change of times and states,
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky
And with them scourge the bad revolting stars.”
Source: The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works
“O my good lord, that comfort comes too late,
'Tis like a pardon after execution.
That gentle physic, given in time, had cured me;
But now I am past all comforts here but prayers.”
Source: King Henry VIII: Third Series
“One whom the music of his own vain tongue doth ravish like enchanting harmony.”
Source: Love's Labour's Lost: Third Series
“Obey thy parents, keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array. * * * Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy pen from lenders' books.”
“Be as just and gracious unto me,
As I am confident and kind to thee.”
Source: The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works
“Conscience is a blushing, shamefaced spirit than mutinies in a man's bosom; it fills one full of obstacles.”
“Conscience is a thousand swords.”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“The color of the king doth come and go,
Between his purpose and his conscience,
Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles set:
His passion is so ripe, it needs must break.”
Source: Macbeth. King John
“Better be with the dead,
Whom we to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy.”
“Besides, they are our outward consciences,
And preachers to us all, admonishing
That we should drew us fairly for our end.”
Source: The Pictorial edition of the works of Shakspere, ed. by C. Knight. [8 vols., including a vol. entitled William Shakspere, by C. Knight]. [8 vols. The vol. containing the biogr. is of the 3rd ed.].
“Tis a blushing shame-faced spirit that mutinies in a man's bosom. It fills a man full of obstacles. It made me once restore a purse of gold that (by chance) I found. It beggars any man that keeps it.”
Source: First Tetralogy In Plain and Simple English: Includes Henry VI Parts 1 - 3 & Richard III
“Let not our babbling dreams affright our souls;
Conscience is but a work that cowards use,
Devised at first to keep the strong in awe:
Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law!”
Source: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
“Yet, for I know thou art religious
And hast a thing within thee called conscience,
With twenty popish tricks and ceremonies
Which I have seen thee careful to observe,
Therefore I urge thy oath; for that I know
An idiot holds his bauble for a god
And keeps the oath which by that god he swears,
To that I'll urge him: therefore thou shalt vow
By that same god, what god soe'er it be,
That thou adorest and hast in reverence,
To save my boy, to nourish and bring him up,
Or else I will discover naught to thee.”
Source: The Dramatic Works, Printed from the Text of Samuel Johnson, George Steevens and Isaac Reed
“Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care
Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are!”
Source: Macbeth
“Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago,
If thou but think'st him wronged, and mak'st his ear
A stranger to thy thoughts.”
Source: Complete Works of Shakespeare
“O constancy, be strong upon my side,
Set a huge mountain 'tween my heart and tongue!
I have a man's mind, but a woman's might.”
“If ever thou shalt love,
In the sweet pangs of it remember me;
For such as I am all true lovers are,
Unstaid and skittish in all motions else
Save in the constant image of the creature
That is beloved.”
“Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.”
“Contention, like a horse,
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose,
And bears down all before him.”
Source: The Beauties of Shakspeare: Regularly Selected from Each Play : with a General Index Digesting Them Under Proper Heads
“The cheek
Is apter than the tongue to tell an errand.”
Source: The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works
