Cleopatra

"All strange and terrible events are welcome, but comforts we despise."

"Eternity was in our lips and eyes."

"Where’s my serpent of old Nile? For so he calls me."

"My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, To say as I said then!"

"O, wither’d is the garland of the war! The soldier’s pole is fall'n; young boys and girls Are level now with men; the odds is gone, And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon."

"Good sirs, take heart: — We'll bury him; and then, what's brave, what's noble, Let's do it after the high Roman fashion, And make Death proud to take us. Come, away: This case of that huge spirit now is cold. — Ah, women, women! — come; we have no friend But resolution, and the briefest end."

"I have Immortal longings in me."

"I am fire and air; my other elements I give to baser life."

"Peace, peace! Dost thou not see my baby at my breast, That sucks the nurse asleep?"

"He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him."

"Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed."

"Her beauty, as we are told, was in itself not altogether incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her; but converse with her had an irresistible charm, and her presence, combined with the persuasiveness of her discourse and the character which was somehow diffused about her behaviour towards others, had something stimulating about it. There was sweetness also in the tones of her voice; and her tongue, like an instrument of many strings, she could readily turn to whatever language she pleased..."

"It was a pleasure merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an instrument of many strings, she could pass from one language to another; so that there were few of the barbarian nations that she answered by an interpreter."

"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety..."

"All strange and terrible events are welcome, But comforts we despise; our size of sorrow, Proportion'd to our cause, must be as great."

"Nought under heaven so strongly doth allure The sense of man, and all his mind possess, As Beauty's lovely bait, that doth procure Great warriors oft their rigour to repress, And mighty hands forget their manliness; ..... And so did warlike Antony neglect The world's whole rule for Cleopatra's sight; Such wondrous power hath women's fair aspect To captive men, and make them all the world reject."

"Kings are not elected. Gods are not elected."

"The secret is always to wear the same scent, until it becomes a personal, untransferable trademark, something that identifies us. Cleopatra knew this and, as with everything else she did, carried it to an extreme."