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William Shakespeare Quotes

100+ of the best book quotes from William Shakespeare
01
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“A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!”
William Shakespeare
author
Richard III
book
King Richard III
character
horses
kingdoms
battlefields
concepts
02
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“Thou want’st a rough pash and the shoots that I have, To be full like me: yet they say we are Almost as like as eggs; women say so, That will say anything but were they false As o’er-dyed blacks, as wind, as waters, false As dice are to be wish’d by one that fixes No bourn ‘twixt his and mine, yet were it true To say this boy were like me. Come, sir page, Look on me with your welkin eye: sweet villain!”
03
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“We were as twinn’d lambs that did frisk i’ the sun, And bleat the one at the other: what we changed Was innocence for innocence;”
04
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“Sir, you have done enough, and have perform’d A saint-like sorrow: no fault could you make, Which you have not redeem’d; indeed, paid down More penitence than done trespass: at the last, Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil; With them forgive yourself.”
05
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“Too hot, too hot! To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods. I have tremor cordis on me: my heart dances; But not for joy; not joy. [...] But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers, As now they are, and making practised smiles,[...] My bosom likes not, nor my brows! Mamillius, Art thou my boy?”
06
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″ better not to have had thee than thus to want thee: thou, having made me businesses which none without thee can sufficiently manage, must either stay to execute them thyself or take away with thee the very services thou hast done; which if I have not enough considered, as too much I cannot, to be more thankful to thee shall be my study, and my profit therein the heaping friendships.”
07
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“Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince; For she did print your royal father off, Conceiving you: were I but twenty-one, Your father’s image is so hit in you, His very air, that I should call you brother”
08
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“The crown and comfort of my life, your favour, I do give lost; for I do feel it gone, But know not how it went. My second joy And first-fruits of my body, from his presence I am barr’d, like one infectious.”
09
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“HERMIONE If you would seek us, We are yours i’ the garden: shall’s attend you there? LEONTES To your own bents dispose you: you’ll be found, Be you beneath the sky. Aside I am angling now, Though you perceive me not how I give line. Go to, go to! How she holds up the neb, the bill to him! And arms her with the boldness of a wife To her allowing husband! ”
10
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“Give me the boy: I am glad you did not nurse him: Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you Have too much blood in him.”
11
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“CAMILLO The heavens continue their loves! ARCHIDAMUS I think there is not in the world either malice or matter to alter it.”
12
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“Good my lord, be cured Of this diseased opinion, and betimes; For ‘tis most dangerous.”
13
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“LEONTES My brother, Are you so fond of your young prince as we Do seem to be of ours? POLIXENES If at home, sir, He’s all my exercise, my mirth, my matter,”
14
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“Looking on the lines Of my boy’s face, methoughts I did recoil Twenty-three years, and saw myself unbreech’d, In my green velvet coat, my dagger muzzled, Lest it should bite its master, and so prove, As ornaments oft do, too dangerous”
15
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“How features are abroad I am skilless of, but, by my modesty, The jewel in my dower, I would not wish Any companion in the world but you, Nor can imagination form a shape Besides yourself to like of.”
16
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“My library was dukedom large enough.”
17
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“Thought is free.”
18
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“You taught me language, and my profit on ’t Is I know how to curse. The red plague rid you For learning me your language! ”
19
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“I’ll swear upon that bottle to be thy true subject, for the liquor is not earthly. ”
20
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“Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.”
21
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“I prattle Something too wildly, and my father’s precepts I therein do forget.”
22
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“If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.”
23
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“For I am all the subjects that you have, Which first was mine own king.”
24
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“As you from crimes would pardoned be, Let your indulgence set me free.”
25
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“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
26
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“The rarer action is In virtue than in vengeance.”
27
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“My high charms work, And these, mine enemies, are all knit up In their distractions. They now are in my power.”
28
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“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”
29
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“Good wombs have borne bad sons.”
30
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“O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world That has such people in ’t!”
31
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“Those being all my study, The government I cast upon my brother And to my state grew stranger, being transported And rapt in secret studies.”
32
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“Watch out he’s winding the watch of his wit, by and by it will strike.”
33
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“All thy vexations Were by my trials of thy love, and thou Hast strangely stood the test. Here, afore heaven, I ratify this my rich gift. ”
34
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“O, I have suffered With those that I saw suffer.”
35
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“The blessed gods Purge all infection from our air whilst you Do climate here!
36
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“Let me be punish’d, that have minded you Of what you should forget. Now, good my liege Sir, royal sir, forgive a foolish woman: The love I bore your queen--lo, fool again!-- I’ll speak of her no more, nor of your children; I’ll not remember you of my own lord, Who is lost too: take your patience to you, And I’ll say nothing. ”
37
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“If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die.”
38
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“If you prized my lady’s favor at anything more than contempt, you would not give means for this uncivil rule”
39
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“That most ingrateful boy there by your side From the rude sea’s enraged and foamy mouth Did I redeem; a wrack past hope he was. His life I gave him and did thereto add My love, without retention or restraint, All his in dedication. For his sake Did I expose myself, pure for his love, Into the danger of this adverse town;”
40
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“One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons!”
41
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“I’ll do my best To woo your lady: Aside. Yet a barful strife! Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife.”
42
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“This is the air; that is the glorious sun. This pearl she gave me, I do feel ‘t and see ‘t. And though ‘tis wonder that enwraps me thus, Yet ‘tis not madness. Where’s Antonio, then? I could not find him at the Elephant. Yet there he was; and there I found this credit, That he did range the town to seek me out. His counsel now might do me golden service.”
43
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“My wife’s a hobby-horse, deserves a name As rank as any flax-wench that puts to Before her troth-plight: say’t and justify’t.”
44
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“I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of love...”
45
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“Well, God give them wisdom that have it. And those that are fools, let them use their talents.”
46
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“If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep”
47
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“It would have been impossible, completely and entirely, for any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare.”
48
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“O, welcome, father. Father, I charge thee, by thy reverence Here to unfold (though lately we intended To keep in darkness what occasion now Reveals before ‘tis ripe) what thou dost know Hath newly passed between this youth and me.”
49
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“But I perceive in you so excellent a touch of modesty, that you will not extort from me what I am willing to keep in. Therefore it charges me in manners the rather to express myself. You must know of me, then, Antonio, my name is Sebastian, which I called Roderigo.”
50
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“Thou art a very ragged Wart.”
51
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“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.”
52
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“To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, ‘tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there’s the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover’d country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action.--Soft you now! The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember’d!”
53
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“If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone.”
54
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“Sweet are the uses of adversity Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”
55
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“Love me or hate me, both are in my favour. If you love me, I’ll always be in your heart... If you hate me, I’ll always be in your mind.”
56
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“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
57
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“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.”
58
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“Brevity is the soul of wit.”
59
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“When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!”
60
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“The Play’s the Thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.”
61
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“Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t.”
62
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“By my soul I swear, there is no power in the tongue of man to alter me.”
63
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“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars But in ourselves.”
64
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“Life... is a paradise to what we fear of death.”
65
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“Love is holy.”
66
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“This above all: to thine own self be true.”
67
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“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
68
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“And therefore, — since I cannot prove a lover, To entertain these fair well-spoken days, — I am determined to prove a villain, And hate the idle pleasures of these days.”
69
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“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.”
70
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“You are thought here to the most senseless and fit man for the job.”
71
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“He kills her in her own humor.”
72
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“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
73
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“Words, words, words.”
74
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“I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself And falls on the other.”
75
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“Educated men are so impressive!”
76
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“The sweetest honey is loathsome in its own deliciousness. And in the taste destroys the appetite. Therefore, love moderately.”
77
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“The Devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape.”
78
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“Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.”
79
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“Tax not so bad a voice to slander music any more than once.”
80
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“Yet but three come one more. Two of both kinds make up four. Ere she comes curst and sad. Cupid is a knavish lad. Thus to make poor females mad.”
81
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“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
82
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“So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.”
83
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“True hope is swift, and flies with swallow’s wings.”
84
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“Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.”
85
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“Love sought is good, but given unsought better.”
86
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“O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful wonderful! And yet again wonderful, and after that, out of all hooping.”
87
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“By innocence I swear, and by my youth, I have one heart, one bosom and one truth, And that no woman has, nor never none Shall mistress be of it, save I alone.”
88
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“You can fool no more money out of me at this throw. If you will let your lady know I am here to speak with her, and bring her along with you, it may awake my bounty further.”
89
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“My stars shine darkly over me; the malignancy of my fate might, perhaps, distemper yours; therefore I shall crave of you your leave that I may bear my evils alone. It were a bad recompense for your love to lay any of them on you.”
90
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“I am not what I am.”
91
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“Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye Than twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet, And I am proof against their enmity.”
92
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“Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love.”
93
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“Listen to many, speak to a few.”
94
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“Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.”
95
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“To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.”
96
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“Why, she may command me. I serve her, she is my lady. ”
97
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“Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing, Though, I confess, much like the character. But out of question, ‘tis Maria’s hand.”
98
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“One may smile, and smile, and be a villain. ”
99
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“Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. ”
100
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“The rest, is silence.”
101
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“You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, except my life.”
102
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“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”
103
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“I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.”
104
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“I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum.”
105
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“I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.”
106
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“The gifts she looks from me are pack’d and lock’d Up in my heart; which I have given already, But not deliver’d. O, hear me breathe my life Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem, Hath sometime loved!”
107
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“God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another.”
108
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“Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting That would not let me sleep.”
109
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“PAULINA Good queen, my lord, Good queen; I say good queen; And would by combat make her good, so were I A man, the worst about you.”
110
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“Heavy matters! heavy matters! but look thee here, boy. Now bless thyself: thou mettest with things dying, I with things newborn.”
111
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“O, then my best blood turn To an infected jelly and my name Be yoked with his that did betray the Best! Turn then my freshest reputation to A savour that may strike the dullest nostril Where I arrive, and my approach be shunn’d, Nay, hated too, worse than the great’st infection That e’er was heard or read!”
112
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“It is yours; And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge, So like you, ‘tis the worse. Behold, my lords, Although the print be little, the whole matter And copy of the father, eye, nose, lip, The trick of’s frown, his forehead, nay, the valley, The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek, His smiles”
113
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“My third comfort Starr’d most unluckily, is from my breast, The innocent milk in its most innocent mouth, Haled out to murder: myself on every post Proclaimed a strumpet: with immodest hatred The child-bed privilege denied, which ‘longs To women of all fashion; lastly, hurried Here to this place, i’ the open air, before I have got strength of limit.”
114
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“Nothing but bonfires: the oracle is fulfilled; the king’s daughter is found: such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour that ballad-makers cannot be able to express it.”
115
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“LEONTES You will! why, happy man be’s dole! My brother, Are you so fond of your young prince as we Do seem to be of ours? POLIXENES If at home, sir, He’s all my exercise, my mirth, my matter, Now my sworn friend and then mine enemy, My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all: He makes a July’s day short as December, And with his varying childness cures in me Thoughts that would thick my blood.”
116
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“There’s an old saying that applies to me: you can’t lose a game if you don’t play the game.”
117
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“Oh, I am fortune’s fool!”
118
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“You are a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings and soar with them above a common bound.”
119
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“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs; Being purg’d, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes; Being vex’d, a sea nourish’d with lovers’ tears; What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.”
120
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“Under loves heavy burden do I sink.
121
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“Love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.”
122
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“Romeo: I dreamt a dream tonight. Mercutio: And so did I. Romeo: Well, what was yours? Mercutio: That dreamers often lie. Romeo: In bed asleep while they do dream things true.”
123
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“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.”
124
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“My only love sprung from my only hate.”
125
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“Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness, serious vanity, Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms, Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel I, that feel no love in this.”
126
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“A glooming peace this morning with it brings; The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head: Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished: For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”
127
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“Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers.”
128
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“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief, That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she. Be not her maid, since she is envious; Her vestal livery is but sick and green And none but fools do wear it; cast it off. It is my lady, O, it is my love! Oh, that she knew she were!”
129
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“Though she be but little, she is fierce!”
130
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“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
131
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“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
132
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“Making a famine where abundance lies, Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.”
133
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“Yet, in good faith, some say that thee behold, Thy face hath not the power to make love groan; To say they err I dare not be so bold, Although I swear it to myself alone.”
134
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“But if thou live, remember’d not to be, Die single and thine image dies with thee.”
135
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“If I could write the beauty of your eyes, And in fresh numbers number all your graces, The age to come would say ‘This poet lies; Such heavenly touches ne’er touch’d earthly faces.‘”
136
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“Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove.”
137
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“Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes, That they behold, and see not what they see?”
138
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“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”
139
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“When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her though I know she lies, That she might think me some untutor’d youth, Unlearned in the world’s false subtleties.”
140
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“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
141
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“Do thy worst old Time: despite thy wrong, My love shall in my verse ever live young.”
142
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“My love is as a fever longing still, For that which longer nurseth the disease; Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, The uncertain sickly appetite to please.”
143
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“Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me prov’d, I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.”
144
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“Ruin’d love, when it is built anew, Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.”
145
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“For if you were by my unkindness shaken, As I by yours, you’ve pass’d a hell of time.”
146
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“Let me be obsequious in thy heart, And take thou my oblation, poor but free, Which is not mix’d with seconds, knows no art, But mutual render, only me for thee.”
147
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“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red, than her lips red: If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask’d, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound: I grant I never saw a goddess go,— My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare, As any she belied with false compare.”
148
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“In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes, For they in thee a thousand errors note; But ‘tis my heart that loves what they despise, Who, in despite of view, is pleased to dote.”
149
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“For well thou know’st to my dear doting heart Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel.”
150
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“Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me, Knowing thy heart torment me with disdain, Have put on black and loving mourners be, Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain. And truly not the morning sun of heaven Better becomes the grey cheeks of the east, Nor that full star that ushers in the even, Doth half that glory to the sober west, As those two mourning eyes become thy face.”
151
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“For I, being pent in thee, Perforce am thine, and all that is in me.”
152
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“Let me excuse thee: ah! my love well knows Her pretty looks have been mine enemies; And therefore from my face she turns my foes, That they elsewhere might dart their injuries: Yet do not so; but since I am near slain, Kill me outright with looks, and rid my pain.”
153
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“I think the king is but a man, as I am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me.”
154
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“Not today, O Lord, O, not today, think not upon the fault My father made in compassing the crown. I Richard’s body have interrèd new And on it have bestowed more contrite tears Than from it issued forcèd drops of blood. Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay Who twice a day their withered hands hold up Toward heaven, to pardon blood.”
155
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“There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things.”
156
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“And but for ceremony such a wretch, Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep, Had the forehand and vantage of a king. The slave, a member of the country’s peace, Enjoys it, but in gross brain little wots What watch the King keeps to maintain the peace, Whose hours the peasant best advantages.”
157
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“So, if a son that is by his father sent about merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him.”
158
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“That 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.”
159
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“All things are ready, if our mind be so.”
160
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“If we are marked to die, we are enough To do our country loss; and if to live, The fewer men, the greater share of honour. God’s will, I pray thee wish not one man more. By Jove, I am not covetous for gold”
161
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″...for many a thousand widows Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands, Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down; And some are yet ungotten and unborn That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin’s scorn.”
162
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“Men of few words are the best men.”
163
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“Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting.”
164
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“There’s for thy labor, Montjoy. (Gives money) Go bid thy master well advise himself: If we may pass, we will; if we be hindered, We shall your tawny ground with your red blood Discolor. And so, Montjoy, fare you well. The sum of all our answer is but this: We would not seek a battle as we are, Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it. So tell your master.”
165
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“Upon the king! Let us our lives, our souls, our debts, our careful wives, our children, and our sins lay on the King! We must bear all. O hard condition, Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel But his own wringing.”
166
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“Every subject’s duty is the king’s, but every subject’s soul is his own.”
167
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“I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle, for how can they charitably dispose of anything, when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it, who to disobey were against all proportion of subjection.”
168
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“But I will rise there with so full a glory That I will dazzle all the eyes of France, Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.”
169
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“Then imitate the action of the tiger. Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage. Then lend the eye a terrible aspect”
170
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“What infinite heartsease Must kings neglect that private men enjoy?”
171
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“Yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his army.”
172
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“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition”
173
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“Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York.”
174
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“Methought that Gloucester stumbled, and in falling Struck me — that thought to stay him— overboard Into the tumbling billows of the main.”
175
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“Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv’st, And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends. No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine, Unless it be while some tormenting dream Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils. Thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog, Thou that wast sealed in thy nativity The slave of nature and the son of hell. Thou slander of thy heavy mother’s womb. Thou loathed issue of thy father’s loins. Thou rag of honour, thou detested—”
176
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“O, cursed be the hand that made these holes; Cursed the heart that had the heart to do it; Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence.”
177
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“The lights burn blue. It is now dead midnight. Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh. What do I fear? Myself? There’s none else by. Richard loves Richard; that is, I am I. Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am. Then fly! What, from myself? Great reason. Why: Lest I revenge. Myself upon myself? Alack, I love myself. Wherefore? For any good That I myself have done unto myself? O no, alas, I rather hate myself For hateful deeds committed by myself. I am a villain.”
178
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“Was ever woman in this humour wooed? Was ever woman in this humour won?”
179
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“My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain.”
180
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“Bloody thou art, bloody will be thy end.”
181
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“Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.”
182
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“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?”
183
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“I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one.”
184
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“Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart, or in the head?”
185
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“There’s not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself.”
186
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“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.”
187
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“By my soul I swear There is no power in the tongue of man To alter me.”
188
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“Ay me! I see the ruin of my house. The tiger now hath seized the gentle hind.”
189
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“When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.”
190
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“I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.”
191
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“Sit by my side, and let the world slip: we shall ne’er be younger.”
192
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“I see a woman may be made a fool, If she had not a spirit to resist.”
193
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“No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en”
194
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“The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o’er a cold decree.”
195
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“To fly the boar before the boar pursues Were to incense the boar to follow us.”
196
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“We will unite the white rose and the red; Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction, That long have frowned upon their enmity.”
197
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“I do not like the Tower, of any place.”
198
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“So wise so young, they say, do never live long.”
199
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“There was a star danced, and under that was I born.”
200
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“Pardon me: I was born to speak all mirth and no matter.”
201
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“Peace! I will stop your mouth.”
202
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“Forward, I pray, since we have come so far, And be it moon, or sun, or what you please. And if you please to call it a rush candle, Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.”
203
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“Seeing too much sadness hath congeal’d your blood, And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy.”
204
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“Here is my hand, and here I firmly vow Never to woo her more, but do forswear her, As one unworthy all the former favours That I have fondly flatter’d her withal.”
205
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“The tyrannous and bloody act is done, The most arch deed of piteous massacre That ever yet this land was guilty of.”
206
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“Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you.”
207
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“We will have rings, and things, and fine array.”
208
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“Ay, to the proof; as mountains are for winds, That shake not, though they blow perpetually.”
209
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“This is a way to kill a wife with kindness, And thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humour. He that knows better how to tame a shrew, Now let him speak. ‘Tis charity to show.”
210
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“I would my horse had the speed of your tongue.”
211
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“Why, what’s the matter, That you have such a February face, So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?”
212
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“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”
213
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“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.”
214
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“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.”
215
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“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”
216
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“Love me! Why, it must be requited.”
217
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“The poorest service is repaid with thanks.”
218
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“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.”
219
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“One half of me is yours, the other half yours, Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours, And so all yours.”
220
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“O, would to God that the inclusive verge Of golden metal that must round my brow Were red-hot steel to sear me to the brains!”
221
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“Happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending.”
222
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“My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, Or else my heart, concealing it, will break.”
223
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“There’s small choice in rotten apples.”
224
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“Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee, And for thy maintenance; commits his body To painful labor, both by sea and land; To watch the night in storms, the day in cold.”
225
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“Hearing thy mildness prais’d in every town, Thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded,-- Yet not so deeply as to thee belongs,-- Myself am mov’d to woo thee for my wife.”
226
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“Say she rail; why, I’ll tell her plain She sings as sweetly as a nightingale. Say that she frown; I’ll say she looks as clear As 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.”
227
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“If I be waspish, best beware my sting.”
228
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“I am asham’d that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace, Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway, When they are bound to serve, love, and obey. Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth, Unapt to toil and trouble in the world, But that our soft conditions and our hearts Should well agree with our external parts?”
229
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“She moves me not, or not removes at least, Affection’s edge in me.”
230
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“If she do bid me pack, I’ll give her thanks As though she bid me stay by her a week. If she deny to wed, I’ll crave the day When I shall ask the banns, and when be married.”
231
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“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.”
232
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“But love is blind and lovers cannot see The pretty follies that themselves commit”
233
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“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!”
234
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“Better once than never, for never too late.”
235
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“I am not bound to please thee with my answers.”
236
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“An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told.”
237
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“Thou cam’st on earth to make the earth my hell.”
238
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“Since every Jack became a gentleman There’s many a gentle person made a Jack.”
239
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“Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly? Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.”
240
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“Is not my sorrow deep, having no bottom?”
241
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“And if thy sons were ever dear to thee, O, think my son to be as dear to me.”
242
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“These words are razors to my wounded heart.”
243
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“I will restore to thee The people’s hearts, and wean them from themselves.”
244
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“Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand, Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.”
245
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“Alas, poor heart, that kiss is comfortless As frozen water to a starved snake.”
246
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“Go to; have your lath glued within your sheath Till you know better how to handle it.”
247
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“Noble patricians, patrons of my right, Defend the justice of my cause with arms.”
248
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“I’ll find a day to massacre them all, And raze their faction and their family, The cruel father and his traitorous sons, To whom I sued for my dear son’s life; And make them know what ‘tis to let a queen Kneel in the streets and beg for grace in vain.”
249
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“Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers?”
250
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“Rome, be as just and gracious unto me As I am confident and kind to thee.”

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