No legacy is so rich as honesty. -All 's Well that Ends Well. Act iii. Sc. 5.

No legacy is so rich as honesty. -All 's Well that Ends Well. Act iii. Sc. 5.

As in a theatre, the eyes of men, After a well-graced actor leaves the stage, Are idly bent on him read more

As in a theatre, the eyes of men, After a well-graced actor leaves the stage, Are idly bent on him that enters next, Thinking his prattle to be tedious. -King Richard II. Act v. Sc. 2.

All his successors gone before him have done 't; and all his ancestors that come after him may. -The Merry read more

All his successors gone before him have done 't; and all his ancestors that come after him may. -The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.

When great poets sing,
Into the night new constellations spring,
With music in the air that dulls read more

When great poets sing,
Into the night new constellations spring,
With music in the air that dulls the craft
Of rhetoric. So when Shakespeare sang or laughed
The world with long, sweet Alpine echoes thrilled
Voiceless to scholars' tongues no muse had filled
With melody divine.

And telling me, the sovereign'st thing on earth Was parmaceti for an inward bruise; And that it was great pity, read more

And telling me, the sovereign'st thing on earth Was parmaceti for an inward bruise; And that it was great pity, so it was, This villanous saltpetre should be digg'd Out of the bowels of the harmless earth, Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd So cowardly; and but for these vile guns, He would himself have been a soldier. -King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.

By the apostle Paul, shadows to-night Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard Than can the substance of read more

By the apostle Paul, shadows to-night Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers. -King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3.

The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she. -As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.

The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she. -As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on,—how then? Can honour set read more

Honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on,—how then? Can honour set to a leg? no: or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour; what is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no. 'T is insensible, then? yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I 'll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism. -King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 1.

Thyself and thy belongings Are not thine own so proper as to waste Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee. read more

Thyself and thy belongings Are not thine own so proper as to waste Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee. Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, 't were 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 thanks and use. -Measure for Measure. Act i. Sc. 1.