Quotes
Quotes - Shakespeare
Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.
If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.
No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?
Praise her but for this her without-door form-- Which on my faith deserves high speech--and straight The shrug, the hum or ha, these pretty brands That calumny doth use--O, I am out, That mercy does, for calumny will sear Virtue itself--these shrugs, these hums and ha's, When you have said she's goodly, come between Ere you can say she's honest.
O dearest soul, your cause doth strike my heart With pity that doth make me sick.
Mad let us grant him them, and now remains That we find out the cause of this effect-- Or rather say, the cause of this defect, For this effect defective comes by cause. Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.
Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge; For, on their answer, will we set on them, And God befriend us as our cause is just!
Mine's not an idle cause.
Give every man your ear, but few thy voice. Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Ever note, Lucilius, When love begins to sicken and decay It useth an enforced ceremony. There are no tricks in plain and simple faith; But hollow men, like horses hot at hand, Make gallant show and promise of their mettle; But when they should endure the bloody spur, They fall their crests, and like deceitful jades Sink in the trial.
And what art thou, thou idol Ceremony? What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?
O Ceremony, show me but thy worth? What is thy soul of adoration? Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form, Creating awe and fear in other men?
What infinite heart's-ease Must kings neglect that private men enjoy! And what have kings that privates have not too, Save ceremony, save general ceremony?
Nay, my lords, ceremony was but devised at first To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes, Recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown; But where there is true friendship, there needs none.
To feed were best at home; From thence, the sauce is meat to ceremony: Meeting were bare without it.
It is religion to be thus forsworn, For charity itself fulfills the law And who can never love from charity?
Lady, you know no rules of charity, Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.
Mine honor's such a ring; My chastity's the jewel of our house, Bequeathed down from many ancestors, Which were the greatest obloquy i' th' world In me to lose.
A nun of winter's sisterhood kisses not more religiously; the very ice of chastity is in them.
The noble sister of Publicola, The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle That's curded by the frost from purest snow And hangs on Dian's temple--dear Valeria!
Me of my lawful pleasure she restrained And prayed me oft forbearance--did it with A pudency so rosy, the sweet view on't Might well have warmed old Saturn--that I thought her As chaste as unsunned snow.
Had she been light, like you, Of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit, She might ha' been a grandam ere she died; And so may you, for a light heart lives long.
Pluck up thy spirits, look cheerfully upon me. Here, love, thou seest how diligent I am To dress thy meat myself and bring it thee.
He makes a July's day short as December, And with his varying childness cures in me Thoughts that would thick my blood.
As long as there is a chance of the world getting through its troubles, I hold that a reasonable man must behave as though he were sure of it. If at the end your cheerfulness was not justified, at any rate you will have been cheerful.
