Base is the slave that pays. -King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Base is the slave that pays. -King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 1.

These are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing read more

These are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion. -Love's Labour 's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 2.

There live not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat and grows old. -King Henry read more

There live not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat and grows old. -King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.

From the still-vexed Bermoothes. -The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.

From the still-vexed Bermoothes. -The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.

These most brisk and giddy-paced times. -Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 4.

These most brisk and giddy-paced times. -Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 4.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact: One sees more devils than vast hell can read more

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact: One sees more devils than vast hell can hold, That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic, Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt: The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name. Such tricks hath strong imagination, That if it would but apprehend some joy, It comprehends some bringer of that joy; Or in the night, imagining some fear, How easy is a bush supposed a bear! -A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act v. Sc. 1.

The passages of Shakespeare that we most prize were never quoted
until within this century.
- read more

The passages of Shakespeare that we most prize were never quoted
until within this century.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson,

At my fingers' ends. -Twelfth Night. Act i. Sc. 3.

At my fingers' ends. -Twelfth Night. Act i. Sc. 3.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It read more

The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. 'T is mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway, It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's, When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, Though justice be thy plea, consider this, That in the course of justice none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. -The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.