Quotes from work

The Merchant of Venice

“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”

“I am not bound to please thee with my answers.”

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.”

“Madam, you have bereft me of all words,
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins”

“The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children.”

“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.”

“I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano!”

“By my soul I swear, there is no power in the tongue of man to alter me.”

“All that glisters is not gold.”

“Tell me where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart, or in the head?”

“I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano, A stage where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one.”

“One half of me is yours, the other half is yours,
Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours.”

“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”

“love is blind
and lovers cannot see
the pretty follies
that themselves commit”

“The moon shines bright. In such a night as this. When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees and they did make no noise, in such a night…”

“All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.”

“You speak an infinite deal of nothing.”

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”