Othello -- III. 3.
NATURE.
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
Troilus and Cressida -- III. 3.
NEWS, GOOD AND BAD.
Though it be honest, it is never good To bring bad news. Give to a gracious message An host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell Themselves, when they be felt.
Antony and Cleopatra -- II. 5.
OFFICE.
'Tis the curse of service;
Preferment goes by letter, and affection, Not by the old gradation, where each second Stood heir to the first.
Othello -- I. 1.
OPPORTUNITY.
Who seeks, and will not take when offered, Shall never find it more.
Antony and Cleopatra -- II. 7.
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:
And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.
Julius Caesar -- IV. 3.
OPPRESSION.
Press not a falling man too far; 'tis virtue:
His faults lie open to the laws; let them, Not you, correct them.
King Henry VIII. -- III. 2.
PAST AND FUTURE.
O thoughts of men accurst!
Past, and to come, seem best; things present, worst.
King Henry IV., Part 2d -- I. 3.
PATIENCE.
How poor are they, that have not patience!--
What wound did ever heal, but by degrees?
Othello -- II. 3.
PEACE.
A peace is of the nature of a conquest;
For then both parties nobly are subdued, And neither party loser.
King Henry IV., Part 2d -- IV. 2.
I will use the olive with my sword:
Make war breed peace; make peace stint war; make each Prescribe to other, as each other's leech.
Timon of Athens -- V. 5.
I know myself now; and I feel within me A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet conscience.
King Henry VIII. -- III. 2.
PENITENCE.
Who by repentance is not satisfied, Is nor of heaven, nor earth; for these are pleased;By penitence the Eternal's wrath appeased.
Two Gentlemen of Verona -- V. 4.
PLAYERS.
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.
As You Like It -- II. 7.
There be players, that I have seen play,--
and heard others praise, and that highly,--
not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, Pagan, nor man, have so strutted, and bellowed, that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.
Hamlet -- III. 2.
POMP.
Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust?
And, live we how we can, yet die we must.
King Henry V. Part 3d -- V. 2.
PRECEPT AND PRACTICE.
If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree: such a bare is madness, the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel, the cripple.
The Merchant of Venice -- I. 2.
PRINCES AND TITLES.
Princes have but their titles for their glories, An outward honor for an inward toil;And, for unfelt imaginations, They often feel a world of restless cares:
So that, between their titles, and low name, There's nothing differs but the outward fame.
King Richard III. -- I. 4.
QUARRELS.
In a false quarrel these is no true valor.
Much Ado About Nothing -- V. 1.
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just;And he but naked, though locked up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
King Henry VI., Part 2d -- III. 2.
RAGE.
Men in rage strike those that wish them best.
Othello -- II. 3.
REPENTANCE.
Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes, Which after-hours give leisure to repent.
King Richard III. -- IV. 4.
REPUTATION.
The purest treasure mortal times afford, Is--spotless reputation; that away, Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barred-up chest I-- a bold spirit in a loyal breast.
King Richard II. -- I. 1.
RETRIBUTION.
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to scourge us.
King Lear -- V. S.
