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The Merchant of Venice QUOTES

The Merchant of Venice QUOTES

1 " love is blind
and lovers cannot see
the pretty follies
that themselves commit "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

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

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

3 " With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

4 " So may the outward shows be least themselves:
The world is still deceived with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

5 " Look on beauty,
And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight;
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them lightest that wear most of it:
So are those crisped snaky golden locks
Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposed fairness, often known
To be the dowry of a second head,
The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.
Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

6 " Lorenzo: In such a night stood Dido with a willow in her hand upon the wild sea-banks, and waft her love to come again to Carthage

Jessica: In such a night Medea gathered the enchanted herbs that did renew old Aeson.

Lorenzo: In such a night did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew, and with an unthrift love did run from Venice, as far as Belmont.

Jessica: In such a night did young Lorenzo swear he lov'd her well, stealing her soul with many vows of faith, and ne'er a true one.

Lorenzo: In such a night did pretty Jessica (like a little shrow) slander her love, and he forgave it her.

Jessica: I would out-night you, did nobody come; but hark, I hear the footing of a man. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

7 " The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

8 " By the sweet power of music: therefore the poet
did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods;
since nought so stockish, hard and full of rage,
but music for the time doth change his nature.
The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night
and his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

9 " I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano! "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

10 " Beshrew me but I love her heartily, For she is wise, if I can judge of her, And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true, And true she is, as she hath proved herself: And therefore like herself, wise, fair, and true, Shall she be placed in my constant soul. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

11 " ...and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us; do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

12 " The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

13 " Thou calledst me a dog before thou hadst a cause,
But since I am a dog, beware my fangs. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

14 " 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. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

15 " Beshrew your eyes,
They have o'erlook'd me and divided me;
One half of me is yours, the other half yours,
Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

16 " 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:
'Tis 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. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

17 " You speak an infinite deal of nothing. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

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

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

19 " I’ll prove the prettier fellow of the two and wear my dagger with the braver grace "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice

20 " The fiend gives the more friendly counsel. "

― William Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice