William Shakespeare

“Poor soul, the center of my sinful Earth.”

“I'll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night, stick fiery off indeed.”

“turn him into stars and form a constellation in his image. His face will make the heavens so beautiful that the world will fall in love with the night and forget about the garish sun.”

“and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked I cried to dream again.”

“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. (Sonnet XCVIII)”

“Come, I know thou lovest me; and at night, when you come into your closet, you'll question this gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to her dispraise those parts in me that you love with your heart. But, good Kate, mock me mercifully; the rather, gentle princess, because I love thee cruelly.”

“I do I know not what, and fear to findMine eye too great a flatterer for my mind.Fate, show thy force. Ourselves we do not owe.What is decreed must be; and be this so.”

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

“Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,And you are stay'd for. There, my blessing with thee.And these few precepts in thy memorySee thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;But do not dull thy palm with entertainmentOf each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. BewareOf entrance to a quarrel; but being in,Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;For the apparel oft proclaims the man,And they in France of the best rank and stationAre of a most select and generous, chief in that.Neither a borrower nor a lender be;For loan oft loses both itself and friend,And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.This above all: to thine own self be true,And it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man.Farewell. My blessing season this in thee!”

“The most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is and steal out of your company.”

“Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle's compass come:Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,But bears it out even to the edge of doom.”

“It is silliness to live when to live is torment, and then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician.”

“What should such fellows as I do crawling between heaven and earth?”

“For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times, Turning the accomplishment of many years Into an hour-glass: for the which supply, Admit me Chorus to this history; Who prologue-like your humble patience pray, Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.”

“And by that destiny to perform an act Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come In yours and my discharge.”

“To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means,warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we notrevenge? If we are like you in the rest, we willresemble you in that. 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. The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but Iwill better the instruction.”

“Death is my son-in-law. Death is my heir.My daughter he hath wedded. I will die,And leave him all. Life, living, all is Death’s.”

“Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,Who is already sick and pale with griefThat thou, her maid, art far more fair than she. . . .”

“Beshrew me, but you have a quick wit.SPEED: And yet it cannot overtake your slow purse.”

“Good Lord, what madness rules in brainsick menWhen for so slight and frivolous a causeSuch factious emulations shall arise!”

“he which hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart; his passport shall be made, And crowns for convoy put into his purse; We would not die in that man's company That fears his fellowship to die with us. This day is call'd the feast of Crispian. He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.' Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.' Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember, with advantages, What feats he did that day. Then shall our names, Familiar in his mouth as household words- Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester- Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red. This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered- We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England now-a-bed Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.”

“The sweetest honey is loathsome in its own deliciousness. And in the taste destroys the appetite. Therefore, love moderately.”

“My Oberon, what visions have I seen!Methought I was enamored of an ass.”

“And Caesar shall go forth.”

“But are not some whole that we must make sick?”

“A piece of work that will make sick men whole.”

“The commonwealth is sick of their own choice;Their over-greedy love has surfeited.An habitation giddy and unsureHath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.”

“O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible,As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on a steeple! My master sues to her, and she hath taught her suitor, He being her pupil, to become her tutor. O excellent device! was there ever heard a better, That my master, being scribe, to himself should write the letter?Valentine. How now, sir? what are you reasoning with yourself?Speed. Nay, I was rhyming: 'tis you that have the reason.”

“Ay, but hearken, sir; though the chameleon Love can feed on the air, I am one that am nourished by my victuals, and would fain have meat.”

“Nay, 'twill be this hour ere I have done weeping. All the kind of the Launces have this very fault. I have received my proportion, like the prodigious son, and am going with Sir Proteus to the Imperial's court. I think Crab, my dog, be the sourest-natured dog that lives. My mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her hands, and all our house in a great perplexity, yet did not this cruel-hearted cur shed one tear. He is a stone, a very pebble stone, and has no more pity in him than a dog. A Jew would have wept to have seen our parting. Why, my grandam, having no eyes, look you, wept herself blind at my parting. Nay, I'll show you the manner of it. This shoe is my father. No, this left shoe is my father. No, no, this left shoe is my mother. Nay, that cannot be so neither. Yes, it is so, it is so -- it hath the worser sole. This shoe with the hole in it is my mother, and this my father. A vengeance on't! There 'tis. Now, sir, this staff is my sister, for, look you, she is as white as a lily and as small as a wand. This hat is Nan, our maid. I am the dog. No, the dog is himself, and I am the dog -- O, the dog is me, and I am myself. Ay, so, so. Now come I to my father: 'Father, your blessing.' Now should not the shoe speak a word for weeping. Now should I kiss my father -- well, he weeps on. Now come I to my mother. O, that she could speak now like a wood woman! Well, I kiss her -- why, there 'tis: here's my mother's breath up and down. Now come I to my sister; mark the moan she makes. Now the dog all this while sheds not a tear nor speaks a word!”

“Know the grave doth gape for thee thrice wider than for other men.”

“Northumberland, thou ladder wherewithal the mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne.”

“I hate the murderer, love him murdered.”

“Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame.”

“I'll give my jewels for a set of beads,My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,My gay apparel for an almsman's gown,My figured goblets for a dish of wood,My scepter for a palmer's walking staffMy subjects for a pair of carved saintsand my large kingdom for a little grave.”

“If she do bid me pack, I'll give her thanksAs though she bid me stay by her a week.If she deny to wed, I'll crave the dayWhen I shall ask the banns, and when be married.”

“Say she rail; why, I'll tell her plainShe sings as sweetly as a nightingale.Say that she frown; I'll say she looks as clearAs morning roses newly wash'd with dew.Say she be mute and will not speak a word;Then I'll commend her volubility,and say she uttereth piercing eloquence.”

“Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?Have I not in my time heard lions roar?Have I not heard the sea, puffed up with winds,Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?Have I not heard great ordinance in the field,And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?Have I not in a pitched battle heardLoud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang?And do you tell me of a woman's tongue, That gives not half so great a blow to hearAs will a chestnut in a farmer's fire?Tush! tush! fear boys with bugs.Grumio: For he fears none.”

“Beauty itself doth of itself persuadeThe eyes of men without orator.”

“Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?”

“Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.”

“Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil;With them forgive yourself.”

“To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;For in that sleep of death what dreams may come?”

“The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.”

“I will do anything ... ere I'll be married to a sponge.”

“The poorest service is repaid with thanks.”

“He hath disgrac'd me and hind'red me half a million; laugh'd at my losses, mock'd at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated my enemies. And what's his reason? I am a Jew.”

“Conscience is but a word that cowards use,Devis'd at first to keep the strong in awe:Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law.March on, join bravely, let us to't pell-mell;If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell.”

“You and you are sure together,As the winter to foul weather.”

“By my troth, I was seeking for a fool when I found you.Orl: He is drowned in the brook, look but in and you shall see him.Jaq: There I shall see mine own figure.Orl: Which I take to be either a fool or a cipher.”