"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."

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

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

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

"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!"

"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."

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

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

"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."

"Let him look to his bond."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

"A harmless necessary cat."

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

"We turned o’er many books together."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"An upright judge, a learned judge!"

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

"A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel! I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word."

"Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that; You take my house, when you do take the prop That doth sustain my house; you take my life, When you do take the means whereby I live."

"I am content."

"He is well paid that is well satisfied."

"Lorenzo: The moon shines bright: in such a night as this, When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees And they did make no noise, in such a night Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls, And sigh’d his soul toward the Grecian tents, Where Cressid lay that night. Jessica: In such a night Did Thisbe fearfully o’ertrip the dew, And saw the lion’s shadow ere himself. And ran dismay’d away. Lorenzo: In such a night Stood Dido with a willow in her hand Upon the wild sea-banks, and waft her love To come again to Carthage. Jessica: In such a night Medea gather’d the enchanted herbs That did renew old Æson. Lorenzo: In such a night Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew And with an unthrift love did run from Venice As far as Belmont. Jessica: In such a night Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her well, Stealing her soul with many vows of faith And ne’er a true one. Lorenzo: In such a night Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew, Slander her love, and he forgave it her."

"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here we will sit, and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony. Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold: There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins; Such harmony is in immortal souls; But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it."