“Ignominy in ransom and free pardon are of two houses; lawful mercy is nothing akin to foul redemption.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.4
“Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good but graciously to know I am no better.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.4
“O place! O form! How oft dost thou with thy case, thy habit, wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls to thy false seeming?” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.4
“Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.2
“Thieves for their robbery have authority when judges steal themselves.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.2
“The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.2
“Authority, though it err like others, hath yet a kind of medicine in itself that skins the vice o’ the top.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.2
“That in the captain’s but a choleric word which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.2
“Great men may jest with saints: ’tis wit in them; but, in the less, foul profanation.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.2
“But man, proud man! Dress’d in a little brief authority,—most ignorant of what he’s most assured, his glassy essence,—like an angry ape, plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven as make the angels weep; who, with our spleens, would all themselves laugh mortal.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.2
“It is excellent to have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.2
“No ceremony that to great ones ’longs, not the king’s crown nor the deputed sword, the marshal’s truncheon nor the judge’s robe, become them with one half so good a grace as mercy does.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.2
“Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so; pardon is still the nurse of second woe.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.1
“Some rise by sin and some by virtue fall: some run from brakes of vice, and answer none; and some condemnéd for a fault alone.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.1
“The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it, because we see it; but what we do not see we tread upon, and never think of it.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.1
“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we might oft win by fearing to attempt.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 1.5
“As surfeit is the father of much fast, so every scope by the immoderate use turns to restraint.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 1.3
“Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, not light them for themselves: for if our virtues did not go forth of us, ’twere all alike as if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch’d but to fine issues: nor nature never lends the smallest scruple of her excellence but, like a thrifty goddess, she determines herself the glory of a creditor, both to thanks and use.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 1.1
“Love that comes too late, like a remorseful pardon slowly carried, to the great sender turns a sour offence, crying, That’s good that’s gone. Our rash faults make trivial price of serious things we have, not knowing them until we know their grave: oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust, destroy our friends, and after weep their dust: our own love waking cries to see what’s done, while shameful hate sleeps out the afternoon.” – William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well 5.3
“Who knows himself a braggart, let him fear this; for it will come to pass that every braggart shall be found an ass.” – William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well 4.3
“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our virtues.” – William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well 4.3
“How mightily, sometimes, we make us comforts of our losses!” – William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well 4.3
“’Tis not the many oaths that make the truth, but the plain single vow that is vow’d true.” – William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well 4.2
“No legacy is so rich as honesty.” – William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well 3.5
“One that lies three-thirds and uses a known truth to pass a thousand nothings with, should be once heard and thrice beaten.” – William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well 2.5
“A good traveller is something at the latter end of a dinner.” – William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well 2.5
“War is no strife to the dark house and the detested wife.” – William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well 2.3
“Honours thrive, when rather from our acts we them derive than our fore-goers: the mere word’s a slave, debauch’d on every tomb; on every grave a lying trophy; and as oft is dumb where dust and damn’d oblivion is the tomb of honour’d bones indeed.” – William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well 2.3
“From lowest place when virtuous things proceed, the place is dignified by the doer’s deed: where great additions swell ’s, and virtue none, it is a dropsied honour: good alone is good without a name, vileness is so: the property by what it is should go, not by the title.” – William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well 2.3
“He must needs go that the devil drives.” – William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well 1.3