Christopher Marlowe Quotes

“All live to die, and rise to fall.”

Source: Tamburlaine the Great, Part 1

Christopher Marlowe Edoardo II

Edward II

“Why should you love him whom the world hates so?
Because he love me more than all the world.”

“Thou hast committed—
Fornication: but that was in another country;
And besides, the wench is dead.”

“Pluck up your hearts, since fate still rests our friend.”

Friar Barnardine and Barabas, Act IV, scene i
The Jew of Malta (c. 1589)

“Love me little, love me long.”

Aeneas, Act I, scene i, line 149
Dido (c. 1586)

“Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?”

Ithamore, Act IV. Quoting John Heywood, "Love me litle, love me long," in Proverbes (c. 1538), Part ii, Chapter ii.
The Jew of Malta (c. 1589)

Christopher Marlowe Quotes about love

“Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove”

First Sestiad. The same statement occurs in As You Like It (1600) by William Shakespeare, and a similar one in The Blind Beggar of Alexandria (1596) by George Chapman.
Hero and Leander (published 1598)
Variant: Where both deliberate, the love is slight; Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?

“He that loves pleasure, must for pleasure fall.”

Source: The Complete Plays and Poems

Christopher Marlowe The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Evil Angel, Act V, scene iv
Source: Doctor Faustus (c. 1603)

“Money can't buy love, but it improves your bargaining position.”

“Above our life we love a steadfast friend.”

“p>Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Or woods or steepy mountain yields.And we will sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies.”

Second Sestiad
Hero and Leander (published 1598)

Christopher Marlowe The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (unknown date), stanzas 1 and 2. Compare: "To shallow rivers, to whose falls / Melodious birds sings madrigals; / There will we make our peds of roses, / And a thousand fragrant posies", William Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, act iii. scene i. (Sung by Evans.)

Christopher Marlowe Quotes about hell

“Mephistopheles: Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it.
Think'st thou that I, who saw the face of God
And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells
In being deprived of everlasting bliss?”

Christopher Marlowe The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Source: Dr. Faustus

“Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscrib'd
In one self place; but where we are is hell,
And where hell is, there must we ever be.”

Christopher Marlowe The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Mephistopheles, Act II, scene i, line 118
Doctor Faustus (c. 1603)
Source: Dr. Faustus

“Hell is just a frame of mind.”

Christopher Marlowe The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Source: Dr. Faustus

“Fools that will laugh on earth, most weep in hell.”

Christopher Marlowe The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Source: Doctor Faustus

“When all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that are not heaven.”

Christopher Marlowe The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Mephistopheles, Act II, scene i, line 120. In the first line, Marlowe references Isaiah in Isaiah 24:19 and 34:4; in the second line, he references Daniel in Daniel 12:10.
Doctor Faustus (c. 1603)

Christopher Marlowe: Trending quotes

“Now will I show myself to have more of the serpent than the dove”

“Like untuned golden strings all women are,
Which long time lie untouch'd, will harshly jar.
Vessels of brass, oft handled, brightly shine.”

Barabas, Act II, scene iii. Marlowe is referencing Jesus, "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves," in Matthew 10:16.
The Jew of Malta (c. 1589)
Context: Now will I show myself to have more of the serpent than the dove; that is, more knave than fool.

“Make me immortal with a kiss.”

First Sestiad
Hero and Leander (published 1598)

“And thus methinks should men of judgment frame
Their means of traffic from the vulgar trade,
And, as their wealth increaseth, so inclose
Infinite riches in a little room.”

Source: Doctor Faustus and Other Plays, Parts 1-2

Christopher Marlowe Quotes

“Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss!”

Barabas, Act I, scene i. Paraphrasing John Heywood, "Here lyeth muche rychnesse in lytell space," in The Foure PP https://books.google.com/books?id=LbkVAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source#v=onepage&q&f=false (c. 1530). <br class="br">The Jew of Malta (c. 1589)

“What nourishes me, destroys me”

Faustus, Act V, scene i, lines 91–93
Doctor Faustus (c. 1603)
Source: The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus

“What art thou Faustus, but a man condemned to die?”

Christopher Marlowe The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Source: Dr. Faustus

“The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike”

Christopher Marlowe The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Source: Dr. Faustus

“I am Envy… I cannot read and therefore wish all books burned.”

“If we say that we have no sin,
We deceive ourselves, and there's no truth in us.
Why then belike we must sin,
And so consequently die.
Ay, we must die an everlasting death.”

Christopher Marlowe The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Source: Dr. Faustus

“You must be proud, bold, pleasant, resolute,
And now and then stab, when occasion serves.”

“Till swollen with cunning, of a self-conceit,
His waxen wings did mount above his reach,
And, melting, Heavens conspir'd his overthrow.”

“Had I as many souls as there be stars, I'd give them all for Mephistopheles!”

Source: The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus

“But what are kings, when regiment is gone,
But perfect shadows in a sunshine day?

- Edward II, 5.1”

“What should a priest do with so fair a house?
A prison may best beseem his holiness.”

“Pray for me! and what noise soever ye hear, come not unto me, for nothing can rescue me.”

Gaveston, Act I, scene i, lines 204–205
Edward II (c. 1592)

Christopher Marlowe The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Faustus, Act V, scene ii, lines 57–58
Doctor Faustus (c. 1603)

“What strange arts necessity finds out.”

“My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawns,
Shall with their goat feet dance the antic hay.”

Venus, Act I, scene i, line 169
Dido (c. 1586)

“I'm armed with more than complete steel,—
The justice of my quarrel.”

Gaveston, Act I, scene i, lines 57–58
Edward II (c. 1592)

“Religion
Hides many mischiefs from suspicion.”

Lust's Dominion (c. 1600), Act iii. scene 4. Compare: "Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just, And he but naked, though locked up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted", William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Act iii. scene 2.
Misattributed

“My swelling heart for very anger breaks.”

Barabas, Act I, scene ii
The Jew of Malta (c. 1589)

“A pleasant-smiling cheek, a speaking eye,
A brow for love to banquet royally.”

King Edward, Act II, scene ii, line 197
Edward II (c. 1592)

“You sons of care, companions of my course!”

First Sestiad
Hero and Leander (published 1598)

“All women are ambitious naturally.”

Aeneas, Act I, scene i, line 142
Dido (c. 1586)

“And let these tears, distilling from mine eyes,
Be proof of my grief and innocency.”

First Sestiad
Hero and Leander (published 1598)

“Things past recovery
Are hardly cured with exclamations.”

Mortimer, Act V, scene vi, line 100
Edward II (c. 1592)

“Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness.”

Barabas, Act I, scene ii
The Jew of Malta (c. 1589)

“Accurst be he that first invented war.”

Ferneze, Act I, scene ii
The Jew of Malta (c. 1589)

“Time passeth swift away;
Our life is frail, and we may die to-day.”

Mycetes, Part 1, Act II, scene iv, line 1
Tamburlaine (c. 1588)

“Che serà, serà:
What will be, shall be.”

Mycetes, Act I, scene i, line 68
Tamburlaine (c. 1588)

Christopher Marlowe The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Faustus, Act I, scene i, lines 47–58
Doctor Faustus (c. 1603)

“Let Earth and Heaven his timeless death deplore,
For both their worths shall equal him no more.”

“Our swords shall play the orators for us.”

Amyras, Part 2, Act V, scene iii, lines 252–253
Tamburlaine (c. 1588)

“It lies not in our power to love or hate,
For will in us is overruled by fate.”

Techelles, Act I, scene ii, line 132
Tamburlaine (c. 1588)

“So, march away; and let due praise be given
Neither to fate nor fortune, but to Heaven.”

First Sestiad
Hero and Leander (published 1598)

“I count religion but a childish toy,
And hold there is no sin but ignorance.”

Ferneze, Act V
The Jew of Malta (c. 1589)

“All they that love not tobacco and boys are fools.”

Machiavel, Prologue
The Jew of Malta (c. 1589)

“Comparisons are odious.”

Remark attributed to Marlowe from the testimony of Richard Baines, a government informer, in 1593.
Disputed

“Love always makes those eloquent that have it.”

Lust's Dominion (c. 1600), Act iii. scene 4. The first edition attributed the authorship of this play to Marlowe, though this attribution has been recognized as spurious by critics and scholars for nearly two centuries. See Logan and Smith, Predecessors of Shakespeare, p. 32. But compare: "Comparisons are odious", John Fortescue, De Laudibus Leg. Angliæ, Chapter xix.
Misattributed