“If thou couldst, doctor, cast The water of my land, find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud you again.”
Source: The Works of William Shakespeare, Complete: Accurately Printed from the Text of the Corrected Copy Left by the Late George Steevens
“I love a ballad but even too well if it be doleful matter merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed and sung lamentably.”
Source: Taming of the shrew. Winter's tale. Comedy of errors
“If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue.”
“A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry. But were we burd'ned with like weight of pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain: So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee, With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me; But if thou live to see like right bereft, This fool-begged patience in thee will be left.”
Source: The Complete Works
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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!”
“If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i' th' shell.”
Source: Troilus and Cressida: Third Series, Revised Edition
“Let fancy still in my sense in Lethe steep; If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!”
Source: The works of William Shakespeare
“If thou engrossest all the griefs are thine, Thou robb'st me of a moiety.”
Source: Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare
“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
“If't be summer news, Smile to't before; if winterly, thou need'st But keep that count'nance still.”
Source: Cymbeline
“For I am nothing if not critical.”
“Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounce it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines.”
“For my part, if a lie may do thee grace, I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have.”
“If the boy have not a woman's gift To rain a shower of commanded tears, An onion will do well for such a shift.”
Source: The Taming of the Shrew
“If circumstances lead me, I will find Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed Within the centre.”
“Bid the dishonest man mend himself; if he mend, he is no longer dishonest.”
Source: Twelfth Night Or What You Will
“Pastime passing excellent, if it he husbanded with modesty.”
Source: The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works
“If it be you that stirs these daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
And let not women's weapons, water drops,
Stain my man's cheeks.”
Source: King Lear
“This is some fellow,
Who having been prais'd for bluntness, doth affect
A saucy roughness and constrains the garb
Quite from his nature: he can't flatter, he!
An honest mind and plain,--he must speak truth!
And they will take it so; if not he's plain.
These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness
Harbor more craft, and far corrupter ends,
Than twenty silly, ducking observants,
That stretch their duty nicely.”
Source: A Treasury of Thought from Shakespeare: The Choice Sayings of His Principal Characters, Analytically and Alphabetically Arranged
“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
“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
“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.”
“If little faults proceeding on distemper
Shall not be winked at, how shall we stretch our eye
When capital crimes, chewed, swallowed, and digested,
Appear before us?”
Source: King Henry V
“If is a custom,
More honor'd in the breach than the observance.”
Source: The Shakspearian Reader: A Collection of the Most Approved Plays of Shakspeare : Carefully Revised, with Introductory and Explanatory Notes, and a Memoir of the Author : Prepared Expressly for the Use of Classes, and the Family Reading Circle
“If ever (as that ever may be near) you meet in some fresh cheek the power of fancy, then shall you know the wounds invisible that love's keen, arrows make.”
Source: Dramatic Works: From the Text of the Corrected Copies of Steevens and Malone
“O, where is loyalty?
If it be banished from the frosty head,
Where shall it find a harbor in the earth?”
Source: Henry VI
“Marry, sir, they praise me and make an ass of me. Now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass; so that by my foes, sir, I profit in the knowledge of myself, any by my friends I am abused; so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives, why then, the worse for my friends, and the better for my foes.”
Source: The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
“The summer's flow'r is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die'
But if that flow'r with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”
“If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep,
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.
My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne,
And all this day an unaccustomed spirit
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.”
“England is safe, if true within itself.”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“It was always yet the trick of our English nation, if they have a good thing, to make it too common.”
“That is my home of love: if I have ranged,
Like him that travels I return again,
Just to the time, not with the time exchanged.”
Source: The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works
“If I lose my honor,
I lose myself: better I were not yours
Than yours so branchless.”
“There is no creature loves me;
And if I die, no soul will pity me.”
“If money go before, all ways do lie open.”
“If I for my opinion bleed, opinion shall be surgeon to my hurt, and keep me on the side where still I am.”
Source: Dramatic works: from copy left by George Steevens with glossary and notes, and sketch of the life of Shakespeare
“The means that heaven yields must be embraced, and not neglected; else, if heaven would, and we will not heaven's offer, we refuse the proffered means of succor and redress.”
Source: King Richard II: Third Series
“If you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt.”
Source: An index to the remarkable passages and words made use of by Shakespeare
“If yon bethink yourself of any crime
Unreconcil'd as yet to heaven and grace,
Solicit for it straight.”
Source: Othello
“Ay me! for aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth. But, either it was different in blood,- Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,- Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it.”
Source: The works of William Shakespeare
“But yet, I say, if imputation and strong circumstances, which lead directly to the door of truth, will give you satisfaction, you may have it.”
Source: The dramatic works and poems of William Shakspeare, pr. from the text of Steevens and Malone, with life, and historical, critical, and explanatory notices by A. Cunningham, a glossary and illustrations
“If our virtues did not go forth of us, it were all alike as if we had them not.”
“Therefore it is most expedient for the wise, if Don Worm (his conscience) find no impediment to the contrary, to be the trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myself.”
Source: Much Ado About Nothing Simplified!: Includes Study Guide, Biography, and Modern Retelling
“If she be not honest, chaste, and true, there's no man happy.”
Source: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
“Wisdom and fortune combating together,
If that the former dare but what it can,
No chance may shake it.”
Source: The Plays of Shakespeare from the Text of Dr. S. Johnson: With the Prefaces, Notes, Etc. of Rowe, Pope, Theobald, Hanmer, Warburton, Johnson and Select Notes from Many Other Critics ; Also, the Introduction of the Last Editor Mr. Capell; and a Table Shewing His Various Readings ...
“Would I were dead, if God's good will were so,
For what is in this world but grief and woe?”
Source: The works of Shakespeare
