King Henry VI., Part 2d -- V. 1.
Reading edition
To be honest, as this world goes, is to be
one man picked out of ten thousand.
Hamlet -- II. 2.
HYPOCRISY.
Devils soonest tempt,
resembling spirits of light.
Love's Labor Lost -- IV. 3.
One may smile, and smile,
and be a villain.
Hamlet -- I. 5.
INNOCENCE.
The trust I have is in mine innocence,
And therefore am I bold and resolute.
Troilus and Cressida -- IV. 4.
INSINUATIONS.
The shrug, the hum, or ha; these petty brands,
That calumny doth use;--
For calumny will sear
Virtue itself:--these shrugs, these bums, and ha's,
When you have said, she's goodly, come between,
Ere you can say she's honest.
Winter's Tale -- II. 1.
JEALOUSY.
Trifles, light as air,
Are, to the jealous, confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ.
Othello -- III. 3.
O beware of jealousy:
It is the green-eyed monster, which does mock
The meat it feeds on.
Idem.
JESTS.
A jest's prosperity lies in the ear
of him that hears it.
Love's Labor Lost -- V. 2.
He jests at scars,
that never felt a wound.
Romeo and Juliet -- II. 2.
JUDGMENT.
Heaven is above all; there sits a Judge,
That no king can corrupt.
King Henry VIII, -- III. 1.
LIFE.
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth -- V. 5.
We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
The Tempest -- IV. 1.
LOVE.
A murd'rous, guilt shows not itself more soon,
Than love that would seem bid: love's night is noon.
Twelfth Night -- III. 2.
Sweet love, changing his property,
Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate.
King Richard II. -- III. 2.
When love begins to sicken and decay,
It useth an enforced ceremony.
Julius Caesar -- II. 2.
The course of true-love
never did run smooth.
Midsummer Night's Dream -- I. 1.
Love looks not with the eyes,
but with the mind.
Idem.
She never told her love,--
But let concealment, like a worm i' th' bud,
Feed on her damask check: she pined in thought
And, with a green and yellow melancholy,
She sat like Patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?
Twelfth Night -- II. 4.
But love is blind, and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit.
The Merchant of Venice -- II. 6.
MAN.
What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason!
How infinite in faculties! 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 -- II. 2.
MERCY.
The quality of mercy is not strained:
it droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven,
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd;
It blesses 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.
Consider this,--
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
Merchant of Venice -- IV. 1.
MERIT.
Who shall go about
To cozen fortune, and be honorable
Without the stamp of merit! Let none presume
To wear an undeserved dignity.
Merchant of Venice -- II. 9.
MODESTY.
It is the witness still of excellency,
To put a strange face on his own perfection.
Much Ado About Nothing -- II. 3.
MORAL CONQUEST.
Brave conquerors! for so you are,
That war against your own affections,
And the huge army of the world's desires.
Love's Labor's Lost -- I. 1.
MURDER.
The great King of kings
Hath in the table of his law commanded,
That thou shalt do no murder.
Take heed; for he holds vengeance in his band,
To hurl upon their heads thatbreak his law.
King Richard III. -- I. 4.
Blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries,
Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth.
King Richard II. -- I. 1.
MUSIC.
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted.
Merchant of Venice -- V. 1.
NAMES.
What's in a name? that, which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet.
Romeo and Juliet -- II. 2.
Good name, in man, and woman,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing.
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
But he, that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that, which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
Othello -- III. 3.
NATURE.
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
Troilus and Cressida -- III. 3.
NEWS, GOOD AND BAD.
Though it be honest, it is never good
To bring bad news. Give to a gracious message
An host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell
Themselves, when they be felt.
Antony and Cleopatra -- II. 5.
OFFICE.
'Tis the curse of service;
Preferment goes by letter, and affection,
Not by the old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to the first.
Othello -- I. 1.
OPPORTUNITY.
Who seeks, and will not take when offered,
Shall never find it more.
Antony and Cleopatra -- II. 7.
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:
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
Julius Caesar -- IV. 3.
OPPRESSION.
Press not a falling man too far; 'tis virtue:
His faults lie open to the laws; let them,
Not you, correct them.
King Henry VIII. -- III. 2.
PAST AND FUTURE.
O thoughts of men accurst!
Past, and to come, seem best; things present, worst.