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.
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