The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (391 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Online
Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 1, l. 60
Et tu, Brute?
Then fall, Caesar!
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 1, l. 77
Live a thousand years,
I shall not find myself so apt to die:
No place will please me so, no mean of death,
As here by Caesar, and by you cut off,
The choice and master spirits of this age.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 1, l. 159
O! pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 1, l. 254
Cry, "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 1, l. 273
Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [22]
As he was valiant, I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, I slew him.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [27]
Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended…I pause for a reply.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [31]
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interrèd with their bones.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [79]
For Brutus is an honourable man.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [88]
He was my friend, faithful and just to me.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [91]
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [97]
If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [174]
This was the most unkindest cut of all.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [188]
O! what a fall was there, my countrymen.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [195]
I am no orator, as Brutus is;
But, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [221]
But were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of Caesar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [230]
Here was a Caesar! when comes such another?
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [257]
Now let it work; mischief, thou art afoot.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [265]
Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad verses.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 3, sc. 3, l. [34]
He shall not live; look, with a spot I damn him.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 4, sc. 1, l. 6
Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself
Are much condemned to have an itching palm.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 4, sc. 3, l. 7
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 4, sc. 3, l. 217
O Julius Caesar! thou art mighty yet!
Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords
In our own proper entrails.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 5, sc. 3, l. 94
Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 5, sc. 5, l. 46
This was the noblest Roman of them all.
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 5, sc. 5, l. 68
Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, "This was a man!"
Julius Caesar
(1599) act 5, sc. 5, l. 74
284
Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me.
King John
(1591–8) act 3, sc. 4, l. 93
To gild refinèd gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
King John
(1591–8) act 4, sc. 2, l. 11
Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones!
King John
(1591–8) act 4, sc. 3, l. 10
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them: nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do rest but true.
King John
(1591–8) act 5, sc. 7, l. 116
288
Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 1, sc. 1, l. [92]
lear
: So young, and so untender?
cordelia
: So young, my lord, and true.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 1, sc. 1, l. [108]
I want that glib and oily art
To speak and purpose not.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 1, sc. 1, l. [227]
Why bastard? wherefore base?
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true,
As honest madam's issue?
King Lear
(1605–6) act 1, sc. 2, l. 6
I grow, I prosper;
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
King Lear
(1605–6) act 1, sc. 2, l. 21
This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune,—often the surfeit of our own behaviour,— we make guilty of our own disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 1, sc. 2, l. [132]
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!
King Lear
(1605–6) act 1, sc. 4, l. [312]
O! let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven;
Keep me in temper; I would not be mad!
King Lear
(1605–6) act 1, sc. 5, l. [51]
Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter!
King Lear
(1605–6) act 2, sc. 2, l. [68]
O, sir! you are old;
Nature in you stands on the very verge
Of her confine.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 2, sc. 4, l. [148]
O reason not the need! Our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 2, sc. 4, l. 264
I will do such things,—
What they are yet I know not,—but they shall be
The terrors of the earth.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 2, sc. 4, l. [283]
Contending with the fretful elements;
Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea,
Or swell the curlèd waters 'bove the main,
That things might change or cease.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 3, sc. 1, l. 4
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head!
King Lear
(1605–6) act 3, sc. 2, l. 1
Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain!
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 3, sc. 2, l. 14
I am a man
More sinned against than sinning.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 3, sc. 2, l. [59]
O! that way madness lies; let me shun that.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 3, sc. 4, l. 21
Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 3, sc. 4, l. 33
Thou art the thing itself; unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [109]
This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [118]
The green mantle of the standing pool.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [136]
The prince of darkness is a gentleman.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [148]
Poor Tom's a-cold.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [151]
Child Roland to the dark tower came,
His word was still, Fie, foh, and fum,
I smell the blood of a British man.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [185]
Out, vile jelly!
Where is thy lustre now?
King Lear
(1605–6) act 3, sc. 7, l. [83]
As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 4, sc. 1, l. 36
gloucester
: Is't not the king?
lear
: Ay, every inch a king.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 4, sc. 6, l. [110]
Die: die for adultery! No:
The wren goes to't, and the small gilded fly
Does lecher in my sight.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 4, sc. 6, l. [115]
Get thee glass eyes;
And, like a scurvy politician, seem
To see the things thou dost not.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 4, sc. 6, l. [175]
When we are born we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 4, sc. 6, l. [187]
Mine enemy's dog,
Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
Against my fire.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 4, sc. 7, l. 36
Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound
Upon a wheel of fire.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 4, sc. 7, l. 46
I am a very foolish, fond old man,