Chapter 12. Shakespearean Quotations for Public

Familiar and frequently quoted passages, also -T Scripture and Shakespeare parallels. As ah additional aid to the memory the speaker's name has been attached to each quotation.

AMBITION-AUTHORITY

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by 't?
Henry VIII, 3:2. (Cardinal Wolsey).

Ambition's debt is paid . . .
O mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low ?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure ?
Julius Casar 3:1. (Mark Antony).

But man, proud man! Drest in a little brief authority, Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, As make the angels weep.
Measure for Measure 2:2. (Isabella).

CONSCIENCE

Conscience does make cowards of us all.
Hamlet 3:1. {Hamlet).

How is't with me when every noise appalls me?
Macbeth 2:2. {Macbeth.)

I feel within me
A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet conscience.
Henry VIII. 3:2. {Cardinal Wolsey).

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ. . . .
The play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
Hamlet 2:2. {Hamlet).

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And, with some sweet, oblivious antidote,
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff,
Which weighs upon the heart?
Macbeth 5 :3. {Macbeth).

Come, come, and sit you down, you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass,
Wherein you may see the inmost part of you.
. . . O Hamlet, speak no more;
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct.
Hamlet 3:4. {Gertrude).

Methought I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more! Macbeth doth murder sleep!-the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell'd 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 2:2. {Macbeth').

Conscience, say I, you counsel well; fiend, say I, you counsel well: to be ruled by my conscience I should stay with the Jew, my master, . . . and to run away from the Jew I should be ruled by the fiend, who is the devil himself: Certainly, the Jew is the very devil incarnation: and, in my conscience, my conscience is a kind of hard conscience, to offer to counsel me to stay with the Jew.
Merchant of "Venice 2:2. {Launcelot Gobbo).

What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted! Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just; And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
// Henry VI. 3:2. {King Henry).

CHARITY-MERCY

The quality of mercy is not strain'd; It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven, Upon the place beneath; it is twice bless'd: It blesseth 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.
Merchant of Venice 4:1. (Portia).

DEATH AND THE FUTURE-ETERNITY He that dies, pays all debts.
Tempest 3:2. (Stephana).

Death, death, O amiable, lovely death!
King John 3:4. (.Constance).

Death, as the Psalmist sayeth, is certain to all; all shall die.
// Henry IV. 3:2. (Shallow).

It is a knell That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.
Macbeth 2:1. (Macbeth').

Immortality attends the former,
Making a man a god.
Pericles 3:2.

Thou know'st 'tis common! all that lives must die Passing through nature to eternity.
Hamlet 1:2. ( Gertrude).

Mount, mount, my soul! thy seat is up on high Whilst thy gross flesh sinks downward, here to die.
Richard II. S:S. 72

Shakespearean Quotations
Men must endure
Their going hence, even as their coming hither
Ripeness is all.
King Lear 5:2 {Edgar).

Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
Full charactered with lasting memory,
Which shall above that idle rank remain,
Beyond all date, even to eternity.
Sonnet 122.

The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
Tempest 4:1. (Prospero).

Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task ast done,
Home are gone, and taken thy wages:
Golden lads and lasses must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Fear no more the frown o' the great,
Thou art past the tyrant's stroke;
Care no more to clothe, and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak:
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.
Song in Cymbeline 4:2.

If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.
Hamlet 5:2. {Hamlet).

FOR GIVENESS-PARDON

O God! forgive my sins, and pardon Thee !
III Henry VI. 5:6. {King Henry VI).

More needs she the divine than the physician,
God, God; forgive us all!
Macbeth 5:1. {Doctor).

FRIENDSHIP

A friend should bear his friend's infirmities.
'Julius Cesar 4:3 {Cassius).

Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice, And could of men distinguish, her election Hath seal'd thee for herself: for thou hast been As one in suffering all, that suffers nothing; A man that fortune's buffets and rewards Has ta'en with equal thanks.

Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee.
Hamlet 3:2. {Hamlet).

FALSEHOOD-FLATTERY-DECEIT

One may smile and smile and be a villain.
Hamlet 1:5. {Hamlet).

Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides; Who covers faults, at last shame them derides.
King Lear 1:1.{Cordelia).

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul, producing holy witness,
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
Merchant of Venice 1:3.{Antonio).

GRATITUDE-INGRATITUDE

Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend.
King Lear 1:4.(Lear).

Ingratitude, more strong than traitor's arms.
"Julius Cesar 3:2. (Antony).

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child.
King Lear 1:4.(Lear).

O Lord, that lends me life,
Lend me a heart replete with thankfullness!
II Henry VI. 1:1.{King Henry VI).

Filial ingratitude!
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand,
For lifting food to 't ?
King Lear 3:4.(Lear).

Ingratitude is monstrous and for the multitude to be ungrateful were to make a monster of the multitude.
Coriolanus 2:3.(Third Citizen).

HEAVEN-HELL O all you host of heaven!
Hamlet 1:5.{Hamlet).

There's husbandry in heaven,
Their candles are all out.
Macbeth 2:1.(Banquo)

My name be blotted from the book of life, And I from heaven banished.
Richard II. 1:3.{Northumberland).

There are more things in heaven and earth- Than are dreamt of in our philosophy.
Hamlet 1:5.(.Hamlet.).

My soul shall thine keep company to heaven;
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast,
Henry V. 4:6.(.Exeter).

The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven.
Midsummer Night's Dream 5:1.(Theseus).

Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from eaven, or blasts from hell!
Hamlet 1:4.(Hamlet).

Down, down to hell, and say I sent thee thither, I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear.
Ill Henry VI. 5:6. (Gloster).

HYPOCRISY-INSINCERITY

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
Macbeth 1:7.(Macbeth).

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another; you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nickname God's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance.
Hamlet 3:1.(Hamlet).

Look like the time, bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue; look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under't. He that's coming Must be provided for.
Macbeth 1:5.{Lady Macbeth).

IGNORANCE

Ignorance is the curse of God,o
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.
II Henry VI. 4:7.(Lord Say).

We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good.
Antony and Cleopatra 2:1(Menecrates).

JUDGMENT

Heaven forgive my sins at the day of Judgment.
Merry Wives 3:3.(Evans).

No reckoning made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head.
Hamlet 1:5.(Ghost).

Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.
Hamlet 1:2.(Hamlet).

O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts And men have lost their reason.
Julius Casar 3:2.(Antony).

JESUS-CHRIST-SAVIOUR

So Judas did to Christ.
Richard II. 4:1.(Richard II).

The precious image of our dear Redeemer.
Richard III. 2:1.{King Edward)

Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ.
I Henry IV. 3:2.{King Henry).

Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated.
Hamlet 1:1.(Marcellus).

JUSTICE-INJUSTICE

Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just; And he but naked, though locked up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
II Henry VI. 3:2.{King Henry VI).

Be just, and fear not:
Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country's, Thy God's and Truth's; then, if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, Thou fall'st a blessed martyr.
Henry VIII. 3:2.{Wolsey).

A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears; see how yond' justice rails upon yond' simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?-Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst behold the great image of authority : a dog's obey'd in office-

The usurer hangs the cozener. Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear; Robes, and furr'd gowns, hide all. Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks: Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it.
King Lear 4:6.(Lear).

LIFE-TIME

Thy life's a miracle.
King Lear 4:6.(Edgar).

Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow.
Macbeth 5:5.{Macbeth).

Time travels in divers paces with divers persons.
As You Like It 3:2.{Rosalind).

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,
Julius Cesar 4 :3.( Cassius)

Come what, come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
Macbeth 1:3. (Macbeth ).

I do not set my life at a pin's fee And, for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself ?
Hamlet 1:4.{Hamlet).

This day I breath'd first: time is come round; And where I did begin there shall I end ; My life is run his compass.
Julius Cesar 5:3.(Cassius).

And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe, And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot, And thereby hangs a tale.
As You Like It2:7.{The Foot).

The end crowns all; And that old common arbiter, Time, Will one day end it.
Troilus and Cressida 4:5.(.Hector).

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
As You Like It 2:1.{Banished Duke).

Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had liv'd a blessed time, for from this instant There's nothing serious in mortality; All is but toys: renown and grace are dead; The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees is left this vault to brag of.
Macbeth 2:3.{Macbeth).

I have liv'd long enough: my way of life Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf; And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses, not loud, but deep, mouth-honor, breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
Macbeth 5:3.{Macbeth).

LOVE-LUST

He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
Romeo and Juliet 2:2.(Romeo).

What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.
Romeo and Juliet 2:2.(Juliet).

From women's eyes this doctrine I derive; They sparkle still the right Promethean fire; They are the books, the arts, the academies, That show, contain and nourish all the world.
Love's Labors Lost 4:3.(.Biran).

She's beautiful and therefore to be wooed; She is a woman, and therefore to be won.
Henry VI. 5:3.{Suffolk).

Such an act,
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty; Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rose From the fair forehead of an innocent love, And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows As false as dicers' oaths: O! such a deed, As from the body of contraction plucks The very soul; and sweet religion makes A rhapsody of words: Heaven's face doth glow, Yea, this solidity and compound mass, With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act
O shame! where is thy blush ?
Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire.
Hamlet 3:4.(Hamlet).

MAN

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!
Hamlet 2:2.(.Hamlet).

Men at some time are masters of their fate; The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves that we are underlings.
Julius Cesar 1:2.(Cassius).

Thou seest, we are not all alone unhappy: This wide and universal theatre Presents more woeful pageants than the scene Wherein we play in. 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 His acts being seven ages.
As You Like It 2:7.{Banished Duke and Jaques).

Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man:
To-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes, to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him:
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost;
And-when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening-nips his root, and then he falls, as I do.
Henry VIII. 3:2.( Wolsey).

Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole? . .
... as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returned into dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam, and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer barrel?
Imperial Caesar dead, and turn to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
O! that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall t' expel the winter's flaw!
Hamlet 5:1.{Hamlet).

MEMORY

Memory, the warder of the brain.
Macbeth 1:7.{Lady Macbeth).

MISCELLANEOUS

Mend your speech a little, Lest it may mar your fortunes.
King Lear 1:1.{Lear).

I'll example you with thievery: The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast sea: the moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun: The sea's a thief whose liquid surge resolves The moon into salt tears; the earth's a thief, That feeds and breeds by a composure stolen From general excrement: each thing's a thief.
Timon of Athens 4:3.{Timon).

I have no other but a woman's reason: I think him so, because I think him so.
Two Gentlemen of Verona 1:2.(Lucetta),

It is a custom More honored in the breach than the observance.
Hamlet 1:4.(Hamlet).

Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and won,
Than women's are.Twelfth Night 2:4.{Duke).
What, man! more water glideth by the mill Than wots the miller.
Titus Andronicus 2:1.(Demetrius),

Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.
Comedy of Errors 1:1.(Balthazar).

Every one can master a grief but he that has it.
Much Ado About Nothing 3:2.(Benedict).

From lowest place when virtuous things proceed, The place is dignified by the doer's deed.
Taming of the Shrew 2 :3.

Whose words all ears took captive.
All's Well That Ends Well 5:3.(Lafen).

What's gone and what's past help,Should be past grief.
The Winter's Tale 1:2.

NATURE'S LESSONS

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
Troilus and Cressida 3 :3.( Ulysses).

In nature's infinite book of secrecy A little I can read.
Antony and Cleopatra 1:2.(Soothsayer)

Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,
The season's difference, or the icy fang,
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind,
Which when it bites, and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say,
This is no flattery: these are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.
As You Like It 2:1.{Banished Duke).

PRAYER-PROVIDENCE

We are in God's hands, brother.
Henry V. 3:6.(Henry V).

Now I am past all comfort here, but prayers.
Henry VIII. 4:2.(Katharine).

There's such divinity doth hedge a king.
Hamlet 4 :5.( Claudius).

There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.
Hamlet 5:2.(Hamlet).

There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will.
Hamlet 5:2.(Hamlet).

He that doth the ravens feed,Yea, providently caters for the sparrow.
As You Like It 2:3.(Old Adam).

PEACE

Blessed are the peace-makers on earth.
II Henry VI. 2:1.(King Henry).

Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, Thy God's, and truth's.
Henry VIII. 3:2.( Wolsey).

PURITY-HONOR-COURAGE- RECTITUDE

To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
Hamlet 2:2.{Hamlet).

To thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou can'st not then be false to any man.
Hamlet 1:3.(Polonius).

Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate thee: Corruption wins not more than honesty.
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,
To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not:
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,
Thy God's and Truth's.
Henry VIII. 3:2.(Wolsey).

For I am arm'd so strong in honesty,
That they pass by me as the idle wind,
Which I respect not.
Julius Casar 4:3.(Brutus)

REPENTANCE-PENITENCE

Mother, for love of grace Lay not that flattering unction to your soul, That not your trespass, but my madness speaks: It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, Whilst rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven; Repent what's past; avoid what is to come.
Hamlet 3:4.(Hamlet).

REMORSE

Yet here's a spot.
Out, damned spot! out, I say! . . . .
Here's the smell of blood still: all the perfumes
Of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.
Macbeth 5:1.(Lady Macbeth)

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.
Duncan is in his grave; '
After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
Can touch him further!
Macbeth 3:2.(Macbeth).

.... Make thick my blood Stop up th' access and passage to remorse; That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between Th' effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature's mischief. Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell! That my keen knife see not the wound it makes; Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry, "Hold, hold!"
Macbeth 1:5.{Lady Macbeth).

Where should Othello go ?-
Now,how dost thou look now? O ill-starr'd wench! Pale as thy smock! when we shall meet at compt, This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven, And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl ; Even like thy chastity- O, cursed, cursed slave !-Whip me, ye devils, From the possession, of this heavenly sight! Blow me about in winds! roast me in sulphur! Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire! 0Desdemona! dead Desdemona! dead. Oh, oh!
Othello 5:2.( Othello).

REVENGE-HATE

And by our holy Sabbath have I sworn, To have the due and forfeit of my bond: You'll ask me, why I rather choose to have A weight of carrion flesh, than to receive Three thousand ducats: I'll not answer that: But, say, it is my humor.
Merchant of Venice 4:1.(Shylock).

If it will feed nothing else it will feed my revenge. . . . If you wrong us, shall we not revenge? .... If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? revenge: If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example ? why, revenge.
Merchant of Venice 3:1.(.Shyloci).

SOUL

Banquo, thy soul's flight If it find heaven, must find it out to-night.
Macbeth 3:2.{Macbeth).

1 do not set my life at a pin's fee;
And, for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself?
Hamlet 1:4.{Hamlet).

Look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold. There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still 'quiring to the young-eyed cherubim's: Such harmony is in immortal souls.
Merchant of Venice 5:1. (Lorenzo).

SUICIDE

Or that the everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self slaughter!
Hamlet 1:2.{Hamlet).

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time . . . When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin ? Who would these fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life; But that the dread of something after death.
Hamlet 3:1.{Hamlet).

SLANDER-MALICE

No, 'tis slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue Out venoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath Rides on the posting winds, and both belie
All corners of the world.
Cymbeline 3:4.(Ptsanio).

If thou dost slander her, and torture me, Never pray more; abandon all remorse ; On horror's head horrors accumulate; Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amaz'd, For nothing canst thou to damnation add,
Greater than that.
Othello 3:3.( Othello).

Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, Thou shalt not escape calumny.
Hamlet 3:1.{Hamlet).

THE WORLD

O, how full of briars is this working-day world !
As You Like It 1:3.{Rosalind).

.... The world's grown honest! Then is dooms-day near.
Hamlet 2:2.{Hamlet).

World, world, O world !
But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee, Life would not yield to age.
King Lear 4:1.{Edgar).

You have too much respect upon the world They lose it that do buy it with much care. ... I hold the world but as the world A stage, where every man plays a part.
Merchant of Venice 1:1.{Antonio).

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here...