The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (387 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
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Shaftesbury, 3rd Lord
1671–1713
1
How comes it to pass, then, that we appear such cowards in reasoning, and are so afraid to stand the test of ridicule?

A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm
(1708) sect. 2

Shakespeare, William
1564–1616
The line number is given without brackets where the scene is all verse up to the quotation and the line number is certain, and in square brackets where prose makes it variable. All references are to the Oxford Standard Authors edition in one volume
All's Well that Ends Well
1
That I should love a bright particular star
And think to wed it.

All's Well that Ends Well
(1603–4) act 1, sc. 1, l. [98]

2
It is like a barber's chair that fits all buttocks.

All's Well that Ends Well
(1603–4) act 2, sc. 2, l. [18]

3
A young man married is a man that's marred.

All's Well that Ends Well
(1603–4) act 2, sc. 3, l. [315]

Antony and Cleopatra
4
cleopatra
: I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved.
antony
: Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 1, sc. 1, l. 16

5
Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the ranged empire fall.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 1, sc. 1, l. 33

6
A Roman thought hath struck him.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 1, sc. 2, l. [91]

7
Where's my serpent of old Nile?

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 1, sc. 5, l. 24

8
My salad days,
When I was green in judgment.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 1, sc. 5, l. 73

9
The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Burned on the water.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 2, sc. 2, l. [199].

10
For her own person,
It beggared all description.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 2, sc. 2, l. [205]

11
I saw her once
Hop forty paces through the public street;
And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted
That she did make defect perfection,
And, breathless, power breathe forth.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 2, sc. 2, l. [236]

12
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety; other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 2, sc. 2, l. [243]

13
I' the east my pleasure lies.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 2, sc. 3, l. 40

14
Let's have one other gaudy night: call to me
All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more;
Let's mock the midnight bell.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 3, sc. 11, l. 182

15
O infinite virtue! com'st thou smiling from
The world's great snare uncaught?

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 4, sc. 8, l. 17

16
The hearts
That spanieled me at heels, to whom I gave
Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets
On blossoming Caesar.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 4, sc. 10, l. 33

17
Unarm, Eros; the long day's task is done,
And we must sleep.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 4, sc. 12, l. 35

18
I am dying, Egypt, dying.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 4, sc. 13, l. 18

19
A Roman by a Roman
Valiantly vanquished.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 4, sc. 13, l. 57

20
O! withered is the garland of the war,
The soldier's pole is fall'n; young boys and girls
Are level now with men; the odds is gone,
And there is nothing left remarkable
Beneath the visiting moon.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 4, sc. 13, l. 64

21
Let's do it after the high Roman fashion,
And make death proud to take us.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 4, sc. 13, l. 87

22
He words me, girls, he words me.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 5, sc. 2, l. 190

23
Finish, good lady; the bright day is done,
And we are for the dark.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 5, sc. 2, l. 192

24
I shall see
Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness
I' the posture of a whore.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 5, sc. 2, l. 218

25
I wish you all joy of the worm.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 5, sc. 2, l. [260]

26
Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have
Immortal longings in me.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 5, sc. 2, l. [282]

27
I am fire and air; my other elements
I give to baser life.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 5, sc. 2, l. [291]

28
charmian
: O eastern star!
cleopatra
: Peace! peace!
Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
That sucks the nurse asleep?

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 5, sc. 2, l. [309]

29
Now boast thee, death, in thy possession lies
A lass unparalleled.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 5, sc. 2, l. [317]

30
She looks like sleep,
As she would catch a second Antony
In her strong toil of grace.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 5, sc. 2, l. [347]

31
She hath pursued conclusions infinite
Of easy ways to die.

Antony and Cleopatra
(1606–7) act 5, sc. 2, l. [356]

As You Like It
32
Fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world.

As You Like It
(1599) act 1, sc. 1, l. [126]

33
O, how full of briers is this working-day world!

As You Like It
(1599) act 1, sc. 3, l. [12]

34
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

As You Like It
(1599) act 2, sc. 1, l. 12.

35
Ay, now am I in Arden; the more fool I. When I was at home I was in a better place; but travellers must be content.

As You Like It
(1599) act 2, sc. 4, l. [16]

36
Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And turn his merry note
Unto the sweet bird's throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

As You Like It
(1599) act 2, sc. 5, l. 1

37
I can suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs.

As You Like It
(1599) act 2, sc. 5, l. [12]

38
And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour, we rot and rot:
And thereby hangs a tale.

As You Like It
(1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 26

39
A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear.

As You Like It
(1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 34

40
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.

As You Like It
(1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 139

41
At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel,
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.

As You Like It
(1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 143

42
Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth.

As You Like It
(1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 149

43
The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon.

As You Like It
(1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 157

44
Second childishness, and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

As You Like It
(1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 165

45
Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude.

As You Like It
(1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 174

46
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.

As You Like It
(1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 181

47
Run, run, Orlando: carve on every tree
The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.

As You Like It
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. 9

48
O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful wonderful! and yet again wonderful, and after that, out of all whooping!

As You Like It
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [202]

49
There was no thought of pleasing you when she was christened.

As You Like It
(1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [284]

50
Thank heaven, fasting, for a good man's love.

As You Like It
(1599) act 3, sc. 5, l. 58

51
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.

As You Like It
(1599) act 4, sc. 1, l. [153]

52
It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o'er the green cornfield did pass,
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

As You Like It
(1599) act 5, sc. 3, l. [18]

53
A poor virgin, sir, an ill-favoured thing, sir, but mine own.

As You Like It
(1599) act 5, sc. 4, l. [60]

54
The retort courteous…the quip modest…the reply churlish…the reproof valiant…the countercheck quarrelsome…the lie circumstantial…the lie direct.
of the degrees of a lie

As You Like It
(1599) act 5, sc. 4, l. [96]

55
Your "if" is the only peace-maker; much virtue in "if".

As You Like It
(1599) act 5, sc. 4, l. [108]

56
He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit.

As You Like It
(1599) act 5, sc. 4, l. [112]

Coriolanus
57
My gracious silence, hail!

Coriolanus
(1608) act 2, sc. 1, l. [194]

58
Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you
His absolute "shall"?

Coriolanus
(1608) act 3, sc. 1, l. 88

59
What is the city but the people?

Coriolanus
(1608) act 3, sc. 1, l. 198

60
There is a world elsewhere.

Coriolanus
(1608) act 3, sc. 3, l. 133

61
The beast
With many heads butts me away.

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