The Merchant of Venice

"Madam, you have bereft me of all words, Only my blood speaks to you in my veins."

"An upright judge, a learned judge!"

"A day in April never came so sweet, To show how costly summer was at hand,"

"An unlesson’d girl, unschool’d, unpractis’d; Happy in this, she is not yet so old But she may learn."

"We turned o’er many books together."

"This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood; The words expressly are, 'a pound of flesh:' Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh; But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate Unto the state of Venice."

"All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told: Many a man his life hath sold But my outside to behold: Gilded tombs do worms infold. Had you been as wise as bold, Young in limbs, in judgment old, Your answer had not been inscroll'd: Fare you well, your suit is cold."

"The ancient saying is no heresy, Hanging and wiving goes by destiny."

"Salarino: Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh: what's that good for? Shylock: To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? if we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction."

"Thou gaudy gold, Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee."

"A harmless necessary cat."

"I am a tainted wether of the flock, Meetest for death; the weakest kind of fruit Drops earliest to the ground."

"A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel! O wise young judge, how I do honour thee!"

"Antonio, I am married to a wife Which is as dear to me as life itself; But life itself, my wife, and all the world, Are not with me esteem’d above thy life: I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all Here to this devil, to deliver you."

"All things that are, Are with more spirit chased than enjoy’d. How like a younker or a prodigal The scarfed bark puts from her native bay, Hugg’d and embraced by the strumpet wind! How like the prodigal doth she return, With over-weather’d ribs and ragged sails, Lean, rent, and beggar’d by the strumpet wind!"

"For she is wise, if I can judge of her; And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true; And true she is, as she hath proved herself; And therefore, like herself, wise, fair, and true, Shall she be placed in my constant soul."

"Like the martlet, Builds in the weather on the outward wall, Even in the force and road of casualty."

"The fire seven times tried this; Seven times tried that judgment is, That did never choose amiss. Some there be that shadows kiss; Such have but a shadow's bliss: There be fools alive, I wis, Silver'd o'er; and so was this. Take what wife you will to bed, I will ever be your head: So be gone: you are sped."

"Let him look to his bond."

"Tubal: One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey. Shylock: Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor: I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys."

"In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being season’d with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil?"

"Thus ornament is but the guiled shore To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word, The seeming truth which cunning times put on To entrap the wisest."

"Thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother."

"Some men there are love not a gaping pig; Some, that are mad if they behold a cat; And others, when the bagpipe sings i’ the nose, Cannot contain their urine."

"What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?"

"If you deny me, fie upon your law! There is no power in the decrees of Venice. I stand for judgement: answer; shall I have it?"

"I never knew so young a body with so old a head."

"The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless’d; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes: ’Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God’s When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, Though justice be thy plea, consider this, That in the course of justice none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer, doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy."

"Shylock: Is it so nominated in the bond? Portia: It is not so express'd: but what of that? 'Twere good you do so much for charity. Shylock: I cannot find it; 'tis not in the bond."

"Commend me to your honourable wife: Tell her the process of Antonio's end; Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death; And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge Whether Bassanio had not once a love."

"There will come a Christian by, Shall be worth a Jewess' eye."

"Fast bind, fast find, A proverb never stale in thrifty mind."

"But love is blind, and lovers cannot see The pretty follies that themselves commit."

"Must I hold a candle to my shames?"

"Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio, But stay the very riping of the time."

"I think he only loves the world for him."

"I will not choose what many men desire, Because I will not jump with common spirits, And rank me with the barbarous multitudes."

"O, that estates, degrees and offices Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honour Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!"

"If my gossip Report be an honest woman of her word."

"The bird was fledged; and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam."

"I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin!"

"No ill luck stirring but what lights on my shoulders; no sighs but of my breathing; no tears but of my shedding."

"Let music sound while he doth make his choice; Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end, Fading in music."

"Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart, or in the head? How begot, how nourished? Reply, reply. It is engender'd in the eyes, With gazing fed; and fancy dies In the cradle where it lies. Let us all ring fancy's knell; I'll begin it, — Ding, dong, bell. All: Ding, dong, bell."

"There is no vice so simple, but assumes Some mark of virtue in his outward parts."

"Look on beauty, And you shall see ’tis purchased by the weight; Which therein works a miracle in nature, Making them lightest that wear most of it."

"Here are a few of the unpleasant’st words That ever blotted paper!"

"The dearest friend to me, the kindest man, The best-condition’d and unwearied spirit In doing courtesies."

"Let it serve for table-talk; Then, howsoe’er thou speak’st, ’mong other things I shall digest it."

"A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew! Now, infidel, I have you on the hip."