The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (392 page)
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Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
And, to deal plainly,
I fear I am not in my perfect mind.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 4, sc. 7, l. 60
Men must endure
Their going hence, even as their coming hither:
Ripeness is all.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 5, sc. 2, l. 9
Come, let's away to prison;
We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 5, sc. 3, l. 8.
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 5, sc. 3, l. [172]
The wheel is come full circle.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 5, sc. 3, l. [176]
Howl, howl, howl, howl! O! you are men of stones:
Had I your tongue and eyes, I'd use them so
That heaven's vaults should crack. She's gone for ever!
King Lear
(1605–6) act 5, sc. 3, l. [259]
Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 5, sc. 3, l. [274]
And my poor fool is hanged! No, no, no life!
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!
King Lear
(1605–6) act 5, sc. 3, l. [307]
Vex not his ghost: O! let him pass; he hates him
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 5, sc. 3, l. [314]
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young,
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
King Lear
(1605–6) act 5, sc. 3, l. [327]
330
Cormorant devouring Time.
Love's Labour's Lost
(1595) act 1, sc. 1, l. 4
A wightly wanton with a velvet brow,
With two pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes.
Love's Labour's Lost
(1595) act 3, sc. 1, l. [206]
From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They are the ground, the books, the academes,
From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire.
Love's Labour's Lost
(1595) act 4, sc. 3, l. [302]
Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise.
Love's Labour's Lost
(1595) act 5, sc. 2, l. 407
Henceforth my wooing mind shall be expressed
In russet yeas and honest kersey noes.
Love's Labour's Lost
(1595) act 5, sc. 2, l. 413
When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men.
Love's Labour's Lost
(1595) act 5, sc. 2, l. [902]
When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd, blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipped and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-who;
Tu-whit, tu-who—a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
Love's Labour's Lost
(1595) act 5, sc. 2, l. [920]
The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo.
Love's Labour's Lost
(1595) act 5, sc. 2, l. [938]
338
first witch
: When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
second witch
: When the hurly-burly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 1, l. 1
Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 1, l. 11
What bloody man is that?
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 2, l. 1
And munched, and munched, and munched: "Give me," quoth I:
"Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed ronyon cries.
Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger:
But in a sieve I'll thither sail,
And, like a rat without a tail,
I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 3, l. 6
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid.
He shall live a man forbid.
Weary se'nnights nine times nine
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 3, l. 19
The weird sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 3, l. 32
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 3, l. 38
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 3, l. 58
Say, from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting?
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 3, l. 72
What! can the devil speak true?
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 3, l. 107
Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 3, l. 127
Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 3, l. 137
Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 3, l. 146
malcolm
: Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 4, l. 7
There's no art
To find the mind's construction in the face.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 4, l. 11
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised. Yet I do fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way; thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition; but without
The illness should attend it; what thou wouldst highly,
That thou wouldst holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 5, l. [16]
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 5, l. [38]
Unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top full
Of direst cruelty.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 5, l. [38]
Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 5, l. [47]
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 5, l. [63]
Look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under't.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 5, l. [66]
This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 6, l. 3
If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly: if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 7, l. 1
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return,
To plague the inventor.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 7, l. 9
Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 7, l. 16
I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 7, l. 25
He hath honoured me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 7, l. 32
Was the hope drunk,
Wherein you dressed yourself?
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 7, l. 35
Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would,"
Like the poor cat i' the adage?
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 7, l. 44
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 7, l. 46
lady macbeth
: I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
macbeth
: If we should fail,—
lady macbeth
: We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 7, l. 54
Bring forth men-children only.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 7, l. 72
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
Macbeth
(1606) act 1, sc. 7, l. 82
There's husbandry in heaven;
Their candles are all out.
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 1, l. 4
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee:
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 1, l. 33
The bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 1, l. 62
It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern'st good-night.
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 2, l. 4
Had he not resembled
My father as he slept I had done't.
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 2, l. 14
Methought I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep," the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care.
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 2, l. 36
Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more!
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 2, l. 43
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures; 'tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil.
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 2, l. 55
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 2, l. 61
A little water clears us of this deed.
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 2, l. 68
Drink, sir, is a great provoker…Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance.
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 3, l. [28]
The labour we delight in physics pain.
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 3, l. [56]
Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 3, l. [72]
Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,
And look on death itself!
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 3, l. [83]
macduff
: Our royal master's murdered!
lady macbeth
: Woe, alas!
What! in our house?
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 3, l. [95]
Had I but died an hour before this chance,
I had lived a blessed time.
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 3, l. [98]
There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood,
The nearer bloody.
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 3, l. [147]
A falcon, towering in her pride of place,
Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.
Macbeth
(1606) act 2, sc. 4, l. 12
banquo
: Go not my horse the better,
I must become a borrower of the night
For a dark hour or twain.
macbeth
: Fail not our feast.
Macbeth
(1606) act 3, sc. 1, l. 26
We have scotched the snake, not killed it.
Macbeth
(1606) act 3, sc. 2, l. 13
Duncan is in his grave;
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further.
Macbeth
(1606) act 3, sc. 2, l. 22
Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day,
And with thy bloody and invisible hand,
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
Which keeps me pale!
Macbeth
(1606) act 3, sc. 2, l. 46
Now spurs the lated traveller apace
To gain the timely inn.
Macbeth
(1606) act 3, sc. 3, l. 6
But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears.
Macbeth
(1606) act 3, sc. 4, l. 24
Now good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both!
Macbeth
(1606) act 3, sc. 4, l. 38
Thou canst not say I did it: never shake
Thy gory locks at me.
Macbeth
(1606) act 3, sc. 4, l. 50
Stand not upon the order of your going.
Macbeth
(1606) act 3, sc. 4, l. 119
It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.
Macbeth
(1606) act 3, sc. 4, l. 122
I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
Macbeth
(1606) act 3, sc. 4, l. 136
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Macbeth
(1606) act 4, sc. 1, l. 10
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Macbeth
(1606) act 4, sc. 1, l. 14
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Macbeth
(1606) act 4, sc. 1, l. 44
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
Macbeth
(1606) act 4, sc. 1, l. 48
Be bloody, bold, and resolute.
Macbeth
(1606) act 4, sc. 1, l. 79
But yet, I'll make assurance double sure,
And take a bond of fate.
Macbeth
(1606) act 4, sc. 1, l. 83
Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him.
Macbeth
(1606) act 4, sc. 1, l. 92
Stands Scotland where it did?
Macbeth
(1606) act 4, sc. 3, l. 164
Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak
Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break.
Macbeth
(1606) act 4, sc. 3, l. 209
He has no children. All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What! all my pretty chickens and their dam,
At one fell swoop?
Macbeth
(1606) act 4, sc. 3, l. 216
Out, damned spot!
Macbeth
(1606) act 5, sc. 1, l. [38]
Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
Macbeth
(1606) act 5, sc. 1, l. [42]
The Thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?
Macbeth
(1606) act 5, sc. 1, l. [46]
All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.
Macbeth
(1606) act 5, sc. 1, l. [56]
What's done cannot be undone.
Macbeth
(1606) act 5, sc. 1, l. [74]
The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!
Where gott'st thou that goose look?
Macbeth
(1606) act 5, sc. 3, l. 11
I have lived long enough: my way of life
Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf.
Macbeth
(1606) act 5, sc. 3, l. 22.
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased?
Macbeth
(1606) act 5, sc. 3, l. 37
Throw physic to the dogs; I'll none of it.
Macbeth
(1606) act 5, sc. 3, l. 47
I have supped full with horrors.
Macbeth
(1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 13
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word,
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
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,