Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, William Shakespeare [best ebook reader for surface pro TXT] 📗

SELF-CONQUEST.

Better conquest never can’st thou make, Than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts Against those giddy loose suggestions.

King John — III. 1.

SELF-EXERTION.

Men at some time are masters of their fates; The fault is not in our stars, But in ourselves.

Julius Caesar — I. 2.

SELF-RELIANCE.

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull.

All’s Well that Ends Well — I. 1.

SILENCE.

Out of this silence, yet I picked a welcome; And in the modesty of fearful duty I read as much, as from the rattling tongue Of saucy and audacious eloquence.

Midsummer Night’s Dream — V. 1.

The silence often of pure innocence Persuades, when speaking fails.

Winter’s Tale — II. 2.

Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much.

Much Ado About Nothing — II. 1.

SLANDER.

Slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie All corners of the world; kings, queens, and states, Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave, This viperous slander enters.

Cymbeline — III. 4.

SLEEP.

The innocent sleep; Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast.

Macbeth — II. 2.

SUICIDE.

Against self-slaughter There is a prohibition so divine, That cravens my weak hand.

Cymbeline — III. 4.

TEMPERANCE.

Though I look old, yet am I strong and lusty: For in my youth I never did apply Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood; Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo The means of weakness and debility: Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, Frosty, but kindly.

As You Like It — II. 3.

THEORY AND PRACTICE.

There was never yet philosopher, That could endure the tooth-ache patiently; However, they have writ the style of the gods, And made a pish at chance and sufferance.

Much Ado About Nothing — V. 1.

TREACHERY.

Though those, that are betrayed, Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor Stands in worse case of woe.

Cymbeline — III. 4.

VALOR.

The better part of valor is—discretion.

King Henry IV., Part 1st — V. 4.

When Valor preys on reason, It eats the sword it fights with.

Antony and Cleopatra — III. 2.

What valor were it, when a cur doth grin For one to thrust his band between his teeth, When he might spurn him with his foot away?

King Henry VI., Part 1st — I. 4.

WAR.

Take care How you awake the sleeping sword of war: We charge you in the name of God, take heed.

King Henry IV., Part 1st — I. 2.

WELCOME.

Welcome ever smiles, And farewell goes out sighing.

Troilus and Cressida — III. 3.

WINE.

Good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used.

Othello — II. 3.

O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee —devil!… O, that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their brains! that we should with joy, revel, pleasure, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!

Othello — II. 3.

WOMAN.

A woman impudent and mannish grown Is not more loathed than an effeminate man.

Troilus and Cressida — III. 3.

WORDS.

Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

Hamlet — III. 3.

Few words shall fit the trespass best, Where no excuse can give the fault amending.

Troilus and Cressida — III. 2.

WORLDLY CARE.

You have too much respect upon the world: They lose it, that do buy it with much care.

Merchant of Venice — I. 1.

WORLDLY HONORS.

Not a man, for being simply man, Hath any honor; but honor for those honors That are without him, as place, riches, favor, Prizes of accident as oftas merit; Which when they fall, as being slippery standers, The love that leaned on them, as slippery too, Do one pluck down another, and together Die in the fall. But ‘tis not so with me.

Troilus and Cressida — III. 3.

End of Project Gutenberg’s Etext of Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare