Quote Atlassourced quotes & context
Author & topic collection

William Shakespeare Quotes About Community

Browse 6 quotations connecting William Shakespeare with Community, with meanings, source notes and related themes.

Sources

Where these community quotations appear

Sources represented here include The Merchant of Venice, All’s Well That Ends Well, Troilus and Cressida.

6 shown
Quotations

6 matching quotations with meanings and source context

Source identified1
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

Voice: Fictional character · Countess of Roussillon

The advice combines generosity with judgment: goodwill can be broad while trust remains selective.

Source details

All’s Well That Ends Well, Act I, Scene 1; the Countess of Roussillon gives Bertram the counsel “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” Verified against Wikisource’s 1910 facsimile transcription of the 1623 First Folio (folio spelling “Loue all, trust a few, Doe wrong to none”); direct evidence resolves to the reviewed Act I transcription.

Source identified2
The quality of mercy is not strained.

“The quality of mercy is not strained.”

Voice: Fictional character · Portia

Portia begins by arguing that real mercy cannot be forced; its moral value comes from being freely given rather than mechanically compelled.

Source details

The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1; opening of Portia’s mercy speech during the trial.

Source identified3
It is twice blest: it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

“It is twice blest: it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”

Voice: Fictional character · Portia

Mercy is described as reciprocal in effect: it helps the recipient, but it also changes the moral character of the person who chooses to give it.

Source details

The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1; Portia explains why mercy benefits both sides.

Source identified4
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”

Voice: Fictional character · Portia

A small good action can remain visible precisely because it contrasts with a difficult environment.

Source details

Act 5, Scene 1.

Source identified5
We do pray for mercy, and that same prayer doth teach us all to render the deeds of mercy.

“We do pray for mercy, and that same prayer doth teach us all to render the deeds of mercy.”

Voice: Fictional character · Portia

Portia turns the desire to receive mercy into a responsibility to practice it, making forgiveness a consistency test rather than a one-way request.

Source details

The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1; conclusion of the central argument in Portia’s mercy speech.

Source identified6
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

Voice: Fictional character · Ulysses

Shared human tendencies can connect people across status and difference, even when the behavior being shared is imperfect.

Source details

Troilus and Cressida, Act III, Scene 3, Project Gutenberg #1528; Ulysses speaks to Achilles. ‘One touch of nature makes the whole world kin’ is immediately defined by the following lines: people ‘with one consent praise new-born gauds’ and the present eye praises the present object. The retained line therefore belongs to Ulysses’s argument about novelty, reputation and forgotten past merit, not an uncomplicated statement of sentimental universal fellowship or Shakespearean autobiography.

More from this author

Other topic collections for William Shakespeare