"Now, by two-headed Janus, Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time: Some that will evermore peep through their eyes, And laugh like parrots at a bag-piper."

"They’ll not show their teeth in way of smile, Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable."

"You have too much respect upon the world: They lose it that do buy it with much care."

"I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage, where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one."

"Let me play the fool: With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."

"Why should a man, whose blood is warm within, Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?"

"There are a sort of men, whose visages Do cream and mantle like a standing pond; And do a willful stillness entertain, With purpose to be dress'd in an opinion Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit; As who should say, 'I am Sir Oracle, And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!'"

"I do know of these, That therefore only are reputed wise For saying nothing."

"Fish not, with this melancholy bait, For this fool gudgeon, this opinion."

"For silence is only commendable In a neat’s tongue dried, and a maid not vendible."

"Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find them: and when you have them, they are not worth the search."

"In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft, I shot his fellow of the self-same flight The self-same way with more advised watch, To find the other forth; and by adventuring both, I oft found both."

"In Belmont is a lady richly left; And she is fair, and fairer than that word, Of wondrous virtues. Sometimes from her eyes I did receive fair speechless messages."

"Her name is Portia; nothing undervalued To Cato’s daughter, Brutus’ Portia:"

"Her sunny locks Hang on her temples like a golden fleece; Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos' strand, And many Jasons come in quest of her."

"My little body is aweary of this great world."

"They are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing. It is no mean happiness, therefore, to be seated in the mean: superfluity comes sooner by white hairs; but competency lives longer."

"If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces."

"I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching."

"The brain may devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps o’er a cold decree."

"He doth nothing but talk of his horse."

"I fear he will prove the weeping philosopher when he grows old, being so full of unmannerly sadness in his youth."

"God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man."

"When he is best, he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast."

"I will do any thing, Nerissa, ere I’ll be married to a sponge."

"If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as Diana."

"I dote on his very absence."

"My meaning, in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me, that he is sufficient."

"Ships are but boards, sailors but men: there be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves."

"To smell pork; to eat of the habitation which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into. I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you."

"How like a fawning publican he looks! I hate him for he is a Christian."

"If I can catch him once upon the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. He hates our sacred nation; and he rails, Even there where merchants most do congregate, On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift, Which he calls interest."

"The devil can cite scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness, Is like a villain with a smiling cheek; A goodly apple rotten at the heart: O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!"

"Signior Antonio, many a time and oft In the Rialto you have rated me About my moneys and my usances: Still have I borne it with a patient shrug; For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe. You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine, And all for use of that which is mine own. Well then, it now appears you need my help: Go to, then; you come to me, and you say, 'Shylock, we would have moneys:' you say so; You, that did void your rheum upon my beard, And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur Over your threshold: moneys is your suit. What should I say to you? Should I not say 'Hath a dog money? is it possible A cur can lend three thousand ducats?' or Shall I bend low and in a bondman’s key, With bated breath and whispering humbleness, Say this, — 'Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last; You spurn'd me such a day; another time You call'd me dog; and for these courtesies I'll lend you thus much moneys?'"

"If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not As to thy friends; for when did friendship take A breed for barren metal of his friend?"

"O father Abram, what these Christians are, Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect The thoughts of others!"

"I like not fair terms and a villain's mind."

"Mislike me not for my complexion, The shadow’d livery of the burnish’d sun."

"An honest exceeding poor man."

"The young gentleman, according to Fates and Destinies and such odd sayings, the Sisters Three and such branches of learning, is indeed deceased; or, as you would say in plain terms, gone to heaven."

"The very staff of my age, my very prop."

"It is a wise father that knows his own child."

"Truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man's son may; but, at the length, truth will out."

"I’ll take my leave of the Jew in the twinkling of an eye."

"But hear thee, Gratiano: Thou art too wild, too rude, and bold of voice; Parts that become thee happily enough, And in such eyes as ours appear not faults; But where thou art not known, why, there they show Something too liberal. Pray thee, take pain To allay with some cold drops of modesty Thy skipping spirit; lest, through thy wild behavior, I be misconstrued in the place I go to, And lose my hopes."

"Alack, what heinous sin is it in me To be ashamed to be my father’s child! But though I am a daughter to his blood, I am not to his manners."

"I know the hand: in faith, 'tis a fair hand; And whiter than the paper it writ on Is the fair hand that writ."

"There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest, For I did dream of money-bags to-night."

"It was not for nothing that my nose fell a-bleeding on Black-Monday."

"The vile squealing of the wry-neck’d fife."