Boldness be my friend!
Arm me, audacity, from heat to foot!
~ in Cymbeline
* * *
Unkindness strikes a deeper wound than steel.
* * *
As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.
* * *
Be great in act, as you have been in thought.
* * *
Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive!
* * *
The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.
* * *
Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.
~ in Othello, Act II, scene iii
* * *
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
~ in Othello, Act III, scene iii
* * *
If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d best teach it to dance.
~ in The Tragedy of King Richard the Second
* * *
Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.
* * *
The purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation.
* * *
.
The gods have sent medicines for the venom of serpents, but there is no medicine for a bad woman. She is more noxious than the viper, or any fire itself.
~ in Andromache
Man’s greatest tyrants are his wife and children.
~ in Oedipus
Man’s best possession is a sympathetic wife.
~ in Fragments, no. 164
No man is wholly free. He is slave to wealth, or to fortune, or the laws, or the people restrain him from acting according to his will alone.
~ in Hecuba
Plain and unvarnished are the words of truth.
~ in The Phoenissae
The facts speak for themselves.
~ in Fragments
There are three classes of citizens. The first are the rich, who are indolent and yet always crave more. The second are the poor, who have nothing, are full of envy, hate the rich, and are easily led by demagogues. Between the two extremes lie those who make the state secure and uphold the laws.
~ in The Suppliants
Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom.
Among mortals second thoughts are wisest.
Better a serpent than a stepmother!
But learn that to die is a debt we must all pay.
Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
Cleverness is not wisdom.
Danger gleams like sunshine to a brave man’s eyes.
Do not plan for ventures before finishing what’s at hand.
Events will take their course, it is no good being angry at them; he is happiest who wisely turns them to the best account.
Fortune truly helps those who are of good judgment.
Happiness is brief. It will not stay. God batters at its sails.
He is not a lover who does not love forever.
He was a wise man who originated the idea of God.
Human misery must somewhere have a stop; there is no wind that always blows a storm.
I would prefer as friend a good man ignorant than one more clever who is evil too.
Impudence is the worst of all human diseases.
It’s not beauty but fine qualities, my girl, that keep a husband.
Leave no stone unturned.
Life has no blessing like a prudent friend.
New faces have more authority than accustomed ones.
Nothing has more strength than dire necessity.
One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.
Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.
Silence is true wisdom’s best reply.
Slight not what’s near through aiming at what’s far.
Some wisdom you must learn from one who’s wise.
Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head.
The best of seers is he who guesses well.
The good and the wise lead quiet lives.
The lucky person passes for a genius.
The wisest men follow their own direction.
This is slavery, not to speak one’s thought.
Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes angry.
To a father growing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter.
‘Twas but my tongue, ’twas not my soul that swore.
Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.
Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.
Youth is the best time to be rich, and the best time to be poor.
__________
__________
RELATED
- 1981 – Sharon Pollock, Blood Relations
- 1982 – John Gray, Billy Bishop Goes to War
- 1983 – Anne Chislett, Quiet in the Land
- 1984 – Judith Thompson, White Biting Dog
- 1985 – George F. Walker, Criminals in Love
- 1986 – Sharon Pollock, Doc
- 1987 – John Krizanc, Prague
- 1988 – George F. Walker, Nothing Sacred
- 1989 – Judith Thompson, The Other Side of the Dark
- 1990 – Ann-Marie MacDonald, Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)
- 1991 – Joan MacLeod, Amigo’s Blue Guitar
- 1992 – John Mighton, Possible Worlds and A Short History of Night
- 1993 – Guillermo Verdecchia, Fronteras Americanas
- 1994 – Morris Panych, The Ends of the Earth
- 1995 – Jason Sherman, Three in the Back, Two in the Head
- 1996 – Colleen Wagner, The Monument
- 1997 – Ian Ross, fareWel
- 1998 – Djanet Sears, Harlem Duet
- 1999 – Michael Healey, The Drawer Boy
- 2000 – Timothy Findley, Elizabeth Rex
- 2001 – Kent Stetson, The Harps of God
- 2002 – Kevin Kerr, Unity (1918)
- 2003 – Vern Thiessen, Einstein’s Gift
- 2004 – Morris Panych, Girl in the Goldfish Bowl
- 2005 – John Mighton, Half Life
- 2006 – Daniel MacIvor, I Still Love You
- 2007: David Lindsay-Abaire, Rabbit Hole
- 2006: no award given
- 2005: John Patrick Shanley, Doubt, a parable.2004: Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife
- 2003: Nilo Cruz, Anna in the Tropics
- 2002: Suzan-Lori Parks, Topdog/Underdog
- 2001: David Auburn, Proof
- 2000: Donald Margulies, Dinner With Friends
- 1999: Margaret Edson, Wit
- 1998: Paula Vogel, How I Learned To Drive
- 1997: no award given
- 1996: Jonathan Larson, Rent
- 1995: Horton Foote, The Young Man From Atlanta
- 1994: Edward Albee, Three Tall Women
- 1993: Tony Kushner, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
- 1992: Robert Schenkkan, The Kentucky Cycle
- 1991: Neil Simon, Lost in Yonkers
- 1990: August Wilson, The Piano Lesson
- 1989: Wendy Wasserstein, The Heidi Chronicles
- 1988: Alfred Uhry, Driving Miss Daisy
- 1987: August Wilson, Fences
- 1986: no award given
- 1985: James Lapine (book) and Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics), Sunday in the Park with George
- 1984: David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross
- 1983: Marsha Norman, ‘Night, Mother
- 1982: Charles Fuller, A Soldier’s Play
- 1981: Beth Henley, Crimes of the Heart
- 1980: Lanford Wilson, Talley’s Folly
- 1979: Sam Shepard, Buried Child
- 1978: Donald L. Coburn, The Gin Game
- 1977: Michael Cristofer, The Shadow Box
- 1976: Michael Bennett (concept, choreography, and direction), Nicholas Dante and James Kirkwood, Jr. (book), Marvin Hamlisch (music) and Edward Kleban (lyrics), A Chorus Line
- 1975: Edward Albee, Seascape
- 1974: no award given
- 1973: Jason Miller, That Championship Season
- 1972: no award given
- 1971: Paul Zindel, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
- 1970: Charles Gordone, No Place To Be Somebody
- 1969: Howard Sackler, The Great White Hope
- 1968: no award given
- 1967: Edward Albee, A Delicate Balance
- 1966: no award given
- 1965: Frank D. Gilroy, The Subject Was Roses
- 1964: no award given
- 1963: no award given
- 1962: Frank Loesser (music and lyrics) and Abe Burrows (book), How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying
- 1961: Tad Mosel, All the Way Home
- 1960: Jerome Weidman and George Abbott (book) Jerry Bock (music), and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics), Fiorello!
- 1959: Archibald MacLeish, J.B.
- 1958: Ketti Frings, Look Homeward, Angel
- 1957: Eugene O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey Into Night
- 1956: Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, Diary of Anne Frank
- 1955: Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
- 1954: John Patrick, The Teahouse of the August Moon
- 1953: William Inge, Picnic
- 1952: Joseph Kramm, The Shrike
- 1951: no award given
- 1950: Richard Rodgers (music), Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics), Joshua Logan (book), South Pacific
- 1949: Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
- 1948: Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
- 1947: no award given
- 1946: Russel Crouse, Howard Lindsay, State of the Union
- 1945: Mary Coyle Chase, Harvey
- 1944: no award given
- 1943: Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth
- 1942: no award given
- 1941: Robert E. Sherwood, There Shall Be No Night
- 1940: William Saroyan, The Time of Your Life
- 1939: Robert E. Sherwood, Abe Lincoln in Illinois
- 1938: Thornton Wilder, Our Town
- 1937: Moss Hart, George S. Kaufman, You Can’t Take It With You
- 1936: Robert E. Sherwood, Idiot’s Delight
- 1935: Zoe Akins, The Old Maid
- 1934: Sidney Kingsley, Men in White
- 1933: Maxwell Anderson, Both Your Houses
- 1932: George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, Ira Gershwin, Of Thee I Sing
- 1931: Susan Glaspell, Alison’s House
- 1930: Marc Connelly, The Green Pastures
- 1929: Elmer Rice, Street Scene
- 1928: Eugene O’Neill, Strange Interlude
- 1927: Paul Green, In Abraham’s Bosom
- 1926: George Kelly, Craig’s Wife
- 1925: Sidney Howard, They Knew What They Wanted
- 1924: Hatcher Hughes, Hell-Bent for Heaven
- 1923: Owen Davis, Icebound
- 1922: Eugene O’Neill, Anna Christie
- 1921: Zona Gale, Miss Lulu Bett
- 1920: Eugene O’Neill, Beyond the Horizon
- 1919: no award given
- 1918: Jesse Lynch Williams, Why Marry?
