All Quotes

"I love a ballad in print a’-life; for then we are sure they are true."

"To unpath'd waters, undream'd shores."

"I am asham'd: does not the stone rebuke me, For being more stone than it?"

"Still, methinks, There is an air comes from her! What fine chisel Could ever yet cut breath?"

"Reason, or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it shall be when we know more."

"The true method of knowledge is experiment."

"There can be no Good Will. Will is always Evil; it is persecution to others or selfishness."

"If a thing loves, it is infinite."

"Does the Eagle know what is in the pit? Or wilt thou go ask the Mole? Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod? Or Love in a golden bowl?"

"How sweet I roamed from field to field, And tasted all the summer's pride, Till I the prince of love beheld, Who in the sunny beams did glide!"

"He loves to sit and hear me sing, Then, laughing, sports and plays with me; Then stretches out my golden wing, And mocks my loss of liberty."

"My silks and fine array, My smiles and languished air, By love are driv'n away; And mournful lean Despair Brings me yew to deck my grave: Such end true lovers have."

"Like a fiend in a cloud, With howling woe, After night I do crowd, And with night will go; I turn my back to the east, From whence comforts have increased; For light doth seize my brain With frantic pain."

"How have you left the ancient love That bards of old enjoyed in you! The languid strings do scarcely move! The sound is forced, the notes are few!"

"Damn sneerers!"

"True superstition is ignorant honesty & this is beloved of god and man."

"Forgiveness of enemies can only come upon their repentance."

"Active Evil is better than Passive Good."

"They suppose that Woman's Love is Sin; in consequence all the Loves & Graces with them are Sin."

"Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me: "Pipe a song about a Lamb." So I piped with merry cheer; "Piper, pipe that song again." So I piped; he wept to hear."

"And I made a rural pen, And I stained the water clear, And I wrote my happy songs Every child may joy to hear."

"Sing louder around To the bells' cheerful sound, While our sports shall be seen On the ecchoing green."

"Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee? Gave thee life and bid thee feed By the stream and o'er the mead; Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing, woolly bright."

"And we are put on earth a little space, That we may learn to bear the beams of love, And these black bodies and this sunburnt face Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove."

"A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"

"Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York; And all the clouds, that lour'd upon our house, In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths; Our bruised arms hung up for monuments; Our stern alarums chang'd to merry meetings, Our dreadful marches to delightful measures. Grim-visag'd war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front; And now, — instead of mounting barbed steeds, To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,— He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute. But I, — that am not shap'd for sportive tricks, Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass; I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love’s majesty, To strut before a wanton ambling nymph; I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion, Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, And that so lamely and unfashionable, That dogs bark at me, as I halt by them,— Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace, Have no delight to pass away the time, Unless to spy my shadow in the sun And descant on mine own deformity. 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."

"Lady Anne: Villain, thou know'st no law of God nor man; No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. Richard: But I know none, and therefore am no beast."

"To leave this keen encounter of our wits."

"Look, how this ring encompasseth thy finger, Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart; Wear both of them, for both of them are thine."

"Was ever woman in this humour woo'd? Was ever woman in this humour won? I'll have her; — but I will not keep her long."

"A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman, — Fram'd in the prodigality of nature, Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal, — The spacious world cannot again afford."

"I cannot tell: the world is grown so bad, That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch: Since every Jack became a gentleman, There's many a gentle person made a Jack."

"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-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog! Thou that wast seal'd 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—"

"But then I sigh, and, with a piece of scripture, Tell them that God bids us do good for evil: And thus I clothe my naked villainy With odd old ends, stol'n out of holy writ; And seem a saint, when most I play the devil."

"Talkers are no good doers: be assur'd, We go to use our hands, and not our tongues."

"O, I have pass'd a miserable night, So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams, That, as I am a christian-faithful man, I would not spend another such a night, Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days. — So full of dismal terror was the time!"

"Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower, And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy; And, in my company, my brother Gloster; Who from my cabin tempted me to walk Upon the hatches: thence we look'd toward England, And cited up a thousand heavy times, During the wars of York and Lancaster, That had befall'n us. As we pac'd along Upon the giddy footing of the hatches, Methought that Gloster stumbled; and, in falling, Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard Into the tumbling billows of the main. O Lord, methought what pain it was to drown! What dreadful noise of waters in my ears! What sights of ugly death within my eyes! Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wrecks; A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon; Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, All scatt'red in the bottom of the sea: Some lay in dead men's skulls; and in the holes Where eyes did once inhabit there were crept,— As 'twere in scorn of eyes,—reflecting gems,"

"I pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood, With that grim ferryman which poets write of, Unto the kingdom of perpetual night."

"Clarence is come; false, fleeting, perjured Clarence, That stabbed me in the field by Tewksbury; Seize on him, Furies, take him to your torments!"

"Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours, Makes the night morning, and the noon-tide night. Princes have but their titles for their glories, An outward honour for an inward toil; And, for unfelt imagination, They often feel a world of restless cares: So that, between their titles and low name, There's nothing differs but the outward fame."

"First Murderer: How dost thou feel thyself now? Second Murderer: Faith, some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me. First Murderer: Remember our reward, when the deed's done. Second Murderer: Zounds, he dies; I had forgot the reward. First Murderer: Where is thy conscience now? Second Murderer: In the Duke of Gloucester's purse. First Murderer: So, when he opens his purse to give us our reward, thy conscience flies out. Second Murderer: Let it go; there's few or none will entertain it. First Murderer: How if it come to thee again? Second Murderer: I'll not meddle with it, it is a dangerous thing, it makes a man a coward; a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; a man cannot swear, but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his neighbour's wife, but it detects him: 'tis a blushing shame-faced spirit, that mutinies in a man's bosom; it fills one full of obstacles: it made me once restore a purse of gold, that I found; it beggars any man that keeps it: it is turned out of all towns and cities for a dangerous thing; and every man that means to live well, endeavors to trust to himself, and live without it. First Murderer: Zounds, it is even now at my elbow, persuading me not to kill the duke."

"Edward, my lord, your son, our king, is dead. — Why grow the branches when the root is gone? Why wither not the leaves that want their sap? — If you will live, lament; if die, be brief, That our swift-winged souls may catch the king's; Or, like obedient subjects, follow him To his new kingdom of perpetual rest."

"A parlous boy: — go to, you are too shrewd."

"So wise, so young, they say, do never live long."

"That Julius Caesar was a famous man; With what his valour did enrich his wit, His wit set down to make his valour live: Death makes no conquest of this conqueror; For now he lives in fame, though not in life."

"An if I live until I be a man, I'll win our ancient right in France again, Or die a soldier, as I liv'd a king."

"Off with his head!"

"Woe, woe for England! Not a whit for me!"

"O momentary grace of mortal men, Which we more hunt for than the grace of God! Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks, Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast, Ready, with every nod, to tumble down Into the fatal bowels of the deep."

"O bloody Richard! —miserable England! I prophesy the fearfull'st time to thee That ever wretched age hath look'd upon. — Come, lead me to the block; bear him my head: They smile at me who shortly shall be dead."