The Merchant of Venice Quotes

“By my soul I swear, there is no power in the tongue of man to alter me.”

“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 hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one.”

“Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart, or in the head?”

“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.”

“By my soul I swear There is no power in the tongue of man To alter me.”

“The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o’er a cold decree.”

“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”

“But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then shew likest Gods When mercy seasons justice.”

“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. Mark the music.”

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”

“The quality of mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”

“One half of me is yours, the other half yours, Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours, And so all yours.”

“All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told: Many a man his life hath sold But my outside to behold: Gilded tombs do worms enfold.”

“But love is blind and lovers cannot see The pretty follies that themselves commit”

“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!”

“I am not bound to please thee with my answers.”

“You speak an infinite deal of nothing.”

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”

“Had you been as wise as bold, Young in limbs, in judgement old, Your answer had not been inscrolled. Fare you well, your suit is cold.”

“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 not revenge?”

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.”

“It is a good divine that follows his own instructions.”

“There is no vice so simple but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.”

“Love is blind.”