Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare [63]
As You Like It -- V. 2.
HONESTY.
An honest man is able to speak for himself, when a knave is not.
King Henry VI., Part 2d -- V. 1.
To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
Hamlet -- II. 2.
HYPOCRISY.
Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light.
Love's Labor Lost -- IV. 3.
One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.
Hamlet -- I. 5.
INNOCENCE.
The trust I have is in mine innocence, And therefore am I bold and resolute.
Troilus and Cressida -- IV. 4.
INSINUATIONS.
The shrug, the hum, or ha; these petty brands, That calumny doth use;-- For calumny will sear Virtue itself:--these shrugs, these bums, and ha's, When you have said, she's goodly, come between, Ere you can say she's honest.
Winter's Tale -- II. 1.
JEALOUSY.
Trifles, light as air, Are, to the jealous, confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ.
Othello -- III. 3.
O beware of jealousy: It is the green-eyed monster, which does mock The meat it feeds on.
Idem.
JESTS.
A jest's prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it.
Love's Labor Lost -- V. 2.
He jests at scars, that never felt a wound.
Romeo and Juliet -- II. 2.
JUDGMENT.
Heaven is above all; there sits a Judge, That no king can corrupt.
King Henry VIII, -- III. 1.
LIFE.
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
Macbeth -- V. 5.
We are such stuff As dreams are made of, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.
The Tempest -- IV. 1.
LOVE.
A murd'rous, guilt shows not itself more soon, Than love that would seem bid: love's night is noon.
Twelfth Night -- III. 2.
Sweet love, changing his property, Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate.
King Richard II. -- III. 2.
When love begins to sicken and decay, It useth an enforced ceremony.
Julius Caesar -- II. 2.
The course of true-love never did run smooth.
Midsummer Night's Dream -- I. 1.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.
Idem.
She never told her love,-- But let concealment, like a worm i' th' bud, Feed on her damask check: she pined in thought And, with a green and yellow melancholy, She sat like Patience on a monument, Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?
Twelfth Night -- II. 4.
But love is blind, and lovers cannot see The pretty follies that themselves commit.
The Merchant of Venice -- II. 6.
MAN.
What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! in form, and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!
Hamlet -- II. 2.
MERCY.
The quality of mercy is not strained: it droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven, Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd; It blesses him that gives, and him that takes: 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown: His scepter 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 sceptered 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. Consider this,-- That, in the course of justice,