Henry IV, Part 2

"From Rumour's tongues They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs."

"Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless, So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone, Drew Priam’s curtain in the dead of night, And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd."

"Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news Hath but a losing office, and his tongue Sounds ever after as a sullen bell, Remember’d tolling a departing friend."

"Let Heaven kiss earth! Now let not nature's hand Keep the wild flood confin'd! let order die! And let this world no longer be a stage, To feed contention in a lingering act."

"You cast the event of war, my noble lord, And summ'd the account of chance, before you said "Let us make head." It was your presurmise, That, in the dole of blows, your son might drop: You knew he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge, More likely to fall in than to get o'er; You were advised his flesh was capable Of wounds and scars and that his forward spirit Would lift him where most trade of danger ranged: Yet did you say "Go forth;" and none of this, Though strongly apprehended, could restrain The stiff-borne action: what hath then befallen, Or what hath this bold enterprise brought forth, More than that being which was like to be?"

"I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men."

"A rascally yea-forsooth knave!"

"Some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time."

"Since all is well, keep it so: wake not a sleeping wolf."

"We that are in the vaward of our youth."

"For my voice, — I have lost it with hollaing, and singing of anthems."

"It was always yet the trick of our English nation, if they have a good thing, to make it too common."

"I were better to be eaten to death with a rust, than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion."

"If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle."

"A good wit will make use of anything; I will turn diseases to commodity."

"Who lin'd himself with hope, Eating the air on promise of supply."

"When we mean to build, We first survey the plot, then draw the model; And when we see the figure of the house, Then must we rate the cost of the erection. 1"

"An habitation giddy and unsure Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart."

"Past, and to come, seem best; things present, worst."

"A poor lone woman."

"I’ll tickle your catastrophe."

"He hath eaten me out of house and home."

"Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, upon Wednesday in Whitsun-week."

"I do now remember the poor creature, small beer."

"Let the end try the man."

"Thus we play the fools with the time; and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds, and mock us."

"He was, indeed, the glass Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves."

"I beseek you now, aggravate your choler."

"O sleep! O gentle sleep! Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down, And steep my senses in forgetfulness?"

"Can'st thou, O partial sleep! give thy repose To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude; And, in the calmest and most stillest night, With all appliances and means to boot, Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down! Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

"Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all; all shall die. How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair?"

"Accommodated; that is, when a man is, as they say, accommodated: or when a man is, — being, — whereby, — he may be thought to be accommodated; which is an excellent thing."

"Let that suffice, most forcible Feeble."

"We have heard the chimes at midnight."

"A man can die but once; — we owe God a death."

"I do remember him at Clement's-inn, like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring: when he was naked, he was, for all the world, like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife."

"We are ready to try our fortunes To the last man."

"I may justly say, with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome, — "I came, saw, and overcame.""

"He hath a tear for pity, and a hand Open as day, for melting charity."

"Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought."

"Commit The oldest sins the newest kind of ways."

"A joint of mutton, and any pretty little tiny kick-shaws, tell William cook."

"His cares are now all ended."

"Falstaff: What wind blew you hither, Pistol? Pistol: Not the ill wind which blows no man to good."

"A foutra for the world, and worldlings base! I speak of Africa, and golden joys."

"Under which king, Bezonian? speak, or die!"

"Falstaff: My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart! King Henry V: I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers; How ill white hairs become a fool, and jester!"