All Quotes

"I am a-weary of this moon: would he would change!"

"All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog."

"Theseus: This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad. Hippolyta: Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man."

"Now am I dead, Now am I fled; My soul is in the sky: Tongue, lose thy light; Moon, take thy flight: Now die, die, die, die, die."

"No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse."

"The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve: Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time."

"Now the hungry lion roars, And the wolf behowls the moon; Whilst the heavy ploughman snores, All with weary task fordone. Now the wasted brands do glow, Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud, Puts the wretch that lies in woe In remembrance of a shroud. Now it is the time of night, That the graves, all gaping wide, Every one lets forth his sprite, In the church-way paths to glide."

"And we fairies, that do run ... Following darkness like a dream, Now are frolic: not a mouse Shall disturb this hallow’d house: I am sent with broom before, To sweep the dust behind the door."

"If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber'd here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: If you pardon, we will mend. And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue, We will make amends ere long; Else the Puck a liar call: So good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends."

"Great is the courage and self-possession of an ass-head. Theseus would have bent in reverent awe before Titania. Bottom treats her as carelessly as if she were the wench of the next-door tapster."

"A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers."

"He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age; doing, in the figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion: he hath indeed better bettered expectation, than you must expect of me to tell you how."

"How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!"

"He is a very valiant trencher-man."

"Beatrice: What is he to a lord? Messenger: A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed with all honourable virtues. Beatrice: It is so indeed, he is no less than a stuffed man: but for the stuffing, — Well, we are all mortal."

"They never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them."

"I will tell you my drift."

"In our last conflict four of his five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man governed with one: so that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse; for it is all the wealth that he hath left, to be known a reasonable creature."

"He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block."

"Messenger: I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books. Beatrice: No; an he were, I would burn my study."

"He is sooner caught than the pestilence, and the taker runs presently mad. God help the noble Claudio! if he have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a thousand pound ere a’ be cured."

"Don Pedro: The fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it. Leonato: Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your Grace: for trouble being gone, comfort should remain; but when you depart from me, sorrow abides, and happiness takes his leave."

"Benedick: What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living? Beatrice: Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it, as Signior Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come in her presence."

"Benedick: I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for, truly, I love none. Beatrice: A dear happiness to women: they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor."

"I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me."

"I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer."

"I dare swear he is no hypocrite, but prays from his heart."

"Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for my simple true judgment; or would you have me speak after my custom, as being a professed tyrant to their sex?"

"Benedick: Would you buy her, that you enquire after her? Claudio: Can the world buy such a jewel?"

"Shall I never see a bachelor of threescore again?"

"Like the old tale, my lord: ‘it is not so, nor ’twas not so, but, indeed, God forbid it should be so.’"

"Don Pedro: By my troth, I speak my thought. Claudio: And, in faith, my lord, I spoke mine. Benedick: And, by my two faiths and troths, my lord, I spoke mine. Claudio: That I love her, I feel. Don Pedro: That she is worthy, I know. Benedick: That I neither feel how she should be loved, nor know how she should be worthy, is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me: I will die in it at the stake."

"That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she brought me up, I likewise give her most humble thanks: but that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me. Because I will not do them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust none; and the fine is, for the which I may go the finer, I will live a bachelor."

"Don Pedro: ‘In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.’ Benedick: The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull’s horns, and set them in my forehead: and let me be vilely painted; and in such great letters as they write ‘Here is good horse to hire,’ let them signify under my sign ‘Here you may see Benedick the married man.’"

"Nay, mock not, mock not. The body of your discourse is sometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but slightly basted on neither: ere you flout old ends any further, examine your conscience: and so I leave you."

"He is of a very melancholy disposition."

"I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face: I had rather lie in the woollen."

"He that hath a beard is more than a youth; and he that hath no beard is less than a man."

"As merry as the day is long."

"I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by daylight."

"Speak low, if you speak love."

"Friendship is constant in all other things, Save in the office and affairs of love: Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues; Let every eye negotiate for itself, And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch, Against whose charms faith melteth into blood."

"It keeps on the windy side of care."

"I was born to speak all mirth and no matter."

"Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much."

"Don Pedro: Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour. Beatrice: No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born."

"If we can do this, Cupid is no longer an archer: his glory shall be ours, for we are the only love-gods."

"It is the witness still of excellency To put a strange face on his own perfection."

"Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever, One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never: Then sigh not so, but let them go, And be you blithe and bonny, Converting all your sounds of woe Into Hey nonny, nonny. Sing no more ditties, sing no moe, Of dumps so dull and heavy; The fraud of men was ever so, Since summer first was leavy: Then sigh not so, &c."

"Sits the wind in that corner?"