"A merrier man, Within the limit of becoming mirth, I never spent an hour’s talk withal: His eye begets occasion for his wit; For every object that the one doth catch, The other turns to a mirth-moving jest, Which his fair tongue, conceit’s expositor, Delivers in such apt and gracious words, That aged ears play truant at his tales, And younger hearings are quite ravished; So sweet and voluble is his discourse."

"Your wit’s too hot, it speeds too fast, ’twill tire."

"Remuneration! O, that’s the Latin word for three farthings."

"And I, forsooth, in love! I that have been love’s whip; A very beadle to a humorous sigh."

"I seek a wife! A woman, that is like a German clock, Still a-repairing, ever out of frame, And never going aright, being a watch, But being watch’d that it may still go right!"

"And, out of question, so it is sometimes, Glory grows guilty of detested crimes, When, for fame’s sake, for praise, an outward part, We bend to that the working of the heart."

"O thou monster Ignorance, how deformed dost thou look!"

"He hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink."

"Many can brook the weather that love not the wind."

"You two are book-men."

"By heaven, I do love: and it hath taught me to rhyme, and to be melancholy."

"God give him grace to groan!"

"King: Sweet fellowship in shame! Biron: One drunkard loves another of the name."

"Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye, ’Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument, Persuade my heart to this false perjury?"

"On a day—alack the day!— Love, whose month is ever May, Spied a blossom passing fair Playing in the wanton air: Through the velvet leaves the wind, All unseen, can passage find; That the lover, sick to death, Wish himself the heaven’s breath. Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow; Air, would I might triumph so! But, alack, my hand is sworn Ne’er to pluck thee from thy thorn; Vow, alack, for youth unmeet, Youth so apt to pluck a sweet! Do not call it sin in me, That I am forsworn for thee; Thou for whom Jove would swear Juno but an Ethiope were; And deny himself for Jove, Turning mortal for thy love."

"Ill, to example ill, Would from my forehead wipe a perjured note; For none offend where all alike do dote."

"Young blood doth not obey an old decree: We cannot cross the cause why we were born."

"What peremptory eagle-sighted eye Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, That is not blinded by her majesty?"

"Black is the badge of hell, The hue of dungeons and the school of night."

"Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light."

"From women's eyes this doctrine I derive: They are the ground, the books, the academes, From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire."

"Why, universal plodding prisons up The nimble spirits in the arteries, As motion and long-during action tires The sinewy vigour of the traveller."

"It adds a precious seeing to the eye."

"A lover’s eyes will gaze an eagle blind; A lover’s ear will hear the lowest sound."

"For valour, is not Love a Hercules, Still climbing trees in the Hesperides? Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical As bright Apollo’s lute, strung with his hair; And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods Make heaven drowsy with the harmony."

"Never durst poet touch a pen to write Until his ink were temper’d with Love’s sighs."

"Allons! allons! Sow’d cockle reap’d no corn."

"Your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without heresy."

"I abhor such fanatical phantasimes, such insociable and point-devise companions; such rackers of orthography."

"Priscian! a little scratched, ’twill serve."

"An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread."

"In the posteriors of this day, which the rude multitude call the afternoon."

"The letter is too long by half a mile."

"Princess: None are so surely caught, when they are catch’d, As wit turn’d fool: folly, in wisdom hatch’d, Hath wisdom’s warrant and the help of school, And wit’s own grace to grace a learned fool. Rosaline: The blood of youth burns not with such excess As gravity’s revolt to wantonness. Maria: Folly in fools bears not so strong a note As foolery in the wise, when wit doth dote; Since all the power thereof it doth apply To prove, by wit, worth in simplicity."

"Richer, than doing nothing for a bribe; Prouder, than rustling in unpaid-for silk."

"Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express’d In russet yeas, and honest kersey noes: And, to begin, wench,—so God help me, la!— My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw."

"The naked truth of it is, I have no shirt."

"I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion."

"Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief."

"A world-without-end bargain."

"To move wild laughter in the throat of death? It cannot be; it is impossible: Mirth cannot move a soul in agony."

"A jest’s prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Of him that makes it."

"Love's Labour Lost! I once did see a play Y-cleped so, so called to my paine, Which I to heare to my small joy did stay, Giving attendance on my froward dame: My misgiving minde presaging to me ill, Yet was I drawne to see it 'gainst my will. This play no play, but plague, was unto me, For there I lost the love I liked most; And what to others seemde a jest to be, I that in earnest found unto my cost. To every one, save me, 'twas comicall. While tragick-like to me it did befall. Each actor plaid in cunning wise his part, But chiefly those entrapt in Cupid's snare; Yet all was fained, 'twas not from the hart, They seeme to grieve, but yet they felt no care; 'Twas I that griefe indeed did beare in brest: The others did but make a shew in jest."

"The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd sense Repairs itself by rest."