My Favorite Shakespeare's Quotes

Bullet My Favorite Shakespeare's Quotes Bullet

I've been gathering quotes from each of Shakespeare's plays that I have read over the years. You might hear some of them quite often. You also might agree that they are quite extraordinary verses that can easily capture your interest. If my favorites happen to be the same as yours, I can only say 'great minds think alike, and so do ours'....:-)
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Title page of Venus and Adonis

MAGNETISM
HUMANITY
JUSTICE FOR ALL
BATTLE OF WILL
CONTEMPLATION

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MAGNETISM

The Passionate Pilgrim
Fair is my love, but not so fair as fickle,
Mild as a dove, but neither true or trusty,
Brighter than glass and yet, as glass is, brittle,
Softer than wax and yet as iron rusty:
A lily pale, with damsk dye to grace her,
None fairer, nor none faster to deface her,

The Sonnets
What is your substance whereof are you made,
That millions of strange shadows on you tend?
Since everyone hath, every one, one shade,
And you, but one, can every shadow lend.
Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit
Is poorly imitated after you;
On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set,
And you in Crecian tires are painted new.
Speak of the spring and foison of the year;
The one doth shadow of your beauty show,
The other as your bounty doth appear,
And you in every blessed shape we know.

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HUMANITY

Merchant of Venice

He [Antonio] 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 reasons? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, demensions, senses, affections, passions?....If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? --Shylock

Tell me where is fancy bred,
Fancy is sometimes bred in the heart,
And sometimes in the head.

Mercy is like the gentle rain from heaven;
Mercy is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives,
And him that takes.

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JUSTICE FOR ALL

Merchant of Venice
A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine:
The court awards it, and the law doth give it
And you must cut this flesh from off his breast:
The law allows it, and the court awards it.
Tarry a little; there's something else.
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.
Thyself shalt see the act:
For, as thou urgest justice, be assured
Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest.
Soft!
The Jew shall have all justice; soft! no haste; --Portia

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BATTLE OF WILL

Venus And Adonis
O what a war of looks was then between them!
Her eyes, petitioners, to his eyes suing;
His eyes saw her eyes as they had not seen them;
Her eyes woo'd still, his eyes disdain'd the wooing:
And all this dumb play had his acts made plain
With tears, which chorus-like, her eyes did rain.

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CONTEMPLATION

Hamlet
To be, or not to be-that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep-
No more-

Macbeth

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
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,
Signify nothing.

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