William Shakespeare Quotes
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“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”
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“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
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“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
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“Such as we are made of, such we be.”
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“There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.”
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“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”
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“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
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“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.”
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“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”
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“If music be the food of love, play on.”
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“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
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“If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?”
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“Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.”
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“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
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“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”
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“Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.”
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“It is a wise father that knows his own child.”
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“Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.”
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“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”
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“This above all; to thine own self be true.”
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“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
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“God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.”
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“Boldness be my friend.”
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“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”
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“Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.”
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“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”
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“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”
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“How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”
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“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”
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“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
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“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.”
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“Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.”
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“There is no darkness but ignorance.”
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“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”
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“Listen to many, speak to a few.”
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“My pride fell with my fortunes.”
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“Though she be but little, she is fierce.”
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“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.”
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“There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.”
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“Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.”
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“Brevity is the soul of wit.”
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“Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.”
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“I like not fair terms and a villain's mind.”
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“The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.”
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“Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.”
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“To be, or not to be, that is the question.”
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“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.”
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“What's done can't be undone.”
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“Talking isn't doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.”
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“Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.”
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“Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones.”
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“To do a great right do a little wrong.”
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“Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.”
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“This life, which had been the tomb of his virtue and of his honour, is 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.”
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“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
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“I see that the fashion wears out more apparel than the man.”
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“The love of heaven makes one heavenly.”
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“I was adored once too.”
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“There's many a man has more hair than wit.”
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“Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.”
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“The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.”
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“They do not love that do not show their love.”
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“False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”
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“We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
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“Farewell, fair cruelty.”
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“Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.”
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“The wheel is come full circle.”
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“What a piece of work is a 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.”
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“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”
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“If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.”
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“I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad and to travel for it too!”
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“O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!”
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“Lawless are they that make their wills their law.”
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“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
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“Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne'er loved them.”
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“Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.”
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“'Tis better to bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.”
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“How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!”
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“But O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes.”
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“What is past is prologue.”
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“Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart.”
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“As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.”
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“In a false quarrel there is no true valor.”
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“No, I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing.”
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“Speak low, if you speak love.”
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“Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.”
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“Time and the hour run through the roughest day.”
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“Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”
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“'Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.”
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“Give thy thoughts no tongue.”
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“Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear.”
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“But men are men; the best sometimes forget.”
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“How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?”
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“Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.”
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“If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me.”
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“Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.”
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“Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.”
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“Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.”
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“Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?”
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“Go to you bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.”
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“When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.”
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“Nothing can come of nothing.”
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“Having nothing, nothing can he lose.”
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“Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.”
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“O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.”
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“Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue.”
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“Death is a fearful thing.”
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“They say miracles are past.”
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“By that sin fell the angels.”
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“O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil.”
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“I must be cruel, only to be kind.”
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“'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after.”
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“Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent.”
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“Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have Immortal longings in me.”
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“The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.”
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“Men's vows are women's traitors!”
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“My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy.”
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“And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”
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“The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.”
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“A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.”
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“As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.”
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“I bear a charmed life.”
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“We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things require a seed to start from… Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing, but all things return dissolved into their elements.”
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“It is the stars, The stars above us, govern our conditions.”
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“An overflow of good converts to bad.”
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“Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing.”
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“The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.”
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“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
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“Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.”
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“We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone.”
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“It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.”
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“Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”
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“Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?”
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“'Tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems.”
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“How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!”
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“I am not bound to please thee with my answer.”
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“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottage princes' palaces.”
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“Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.”
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“The most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is and steal out of your company.”
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“And why not death rather than living torment? To die is to be banish'd from myself; And Silvia is myself: banish'd from her Is self from self: a deadly banishment!”
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“I give unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture.”
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“Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.”
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“Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.”
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“I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire.”
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“I were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.”
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“He does it with better grace, but I do it more natural.”
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“God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.”
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“I will praise any man that will praise me.”
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“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
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“The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch, which hurts and is desired.”
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“But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive.”
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“Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping?”
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“He that loves to be flattered is worthy o' the flatterer.”
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“I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart.”
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“Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end.”
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“Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.”
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“Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes.”
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“Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.”
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“O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”
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“When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.”
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“I say there is no darkness but ignorance.”
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“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”
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“There was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass.”
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“Well, if Fortune be a woman, she's a good wench for this gear.”
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“Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who hath any honesty in him.”
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“There have been many great men that have flattered the people who ne'er loved them.”
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“O' What may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!”
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“The valiant never taste of death but once.”
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“Maids want nothing but husbands, and when they have them, they want everything.”
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“If it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul.”
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“Women may fall when there's no strength in men.”
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“I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part, And mine is a sad one.”
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“O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad!”
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“There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting.”
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“Now is the winter of our discontent.”
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“How well he's read, to reason against reading!”
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“For I can raise no money by vile means.”
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“If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honor.”
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“He is winding the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.”
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“Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”
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“A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued, and neither party loser.”
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“And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.”
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“Let no such man be trusted.”
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“In time we hate that which we often fear.”
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“There's place and means for every man alive.”
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“There are many events in the womb of time, which will be delivered.”
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“Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.”
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“So foul and fair a day I have not seen.”
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“Desire of having is the sin of covetousness.”
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“Thou know'st the first time that we smell the air we wawl and cry. When we are born we cry, that we are come to this great state of fools.”
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“Alas, I am a woman friendless, hopeless!”
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“Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.”
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“Exceeds man's might: that dwells with the gods above.”
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“Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.”
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“Where every something, being blent together turns to a wild of nothing.”
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“I dote on his very absence.”
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“Men shut their doors against a setting sun.”
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“Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying!”
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“For my part, it was Greek to me.”
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“The fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.”
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“As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him.”
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“Praise us as we are tasted, allow us as we prove.”
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“I may neither choose who I would, nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father.”
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“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.”
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“Love is too young to know what conscience is.”
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“Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.”
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“The attempt and not the deed confounds us.”
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“He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.”
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“O, had I but followed the arts!”
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“Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.”
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“What, man, defy the devil. Consider, he's an enemy to mankind.”