Browse 10 quotations connecting William Shakespeare with Forgiveness, with meanings, source notes and related themes.
Each quotation is included because its central idea connects with this theme, not simply because one matching word appears in the sentence.
Sources represented here include The Merchant of Venice, Othello, All’s Well That Ends Well. Keeping the work and source note beside each quotation makes differences in setting, speaker and emphasis easier to see.
Sources represented here include The Merchant of Venice, Othello, All’s Well That Ends Well.
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
The advice combines generosity with judgment: goodwill can be broad while trust remains selective.
Source note: All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1, Scene 1; the Countess gives Bertram compact advice about conduct before he leaves.
“What’s done cannot be undone.”
Some consequences cannot be reversed, so the practical question becomes how to respond now rather than how to erase the past.
Source note: Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1; Lady Macbeth speaks during the sleepwalking scene while confronting actions that cannot be reversed.
“The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.”
Preserving some inward freedom after a loss denies the wrongdoer complete control over what the loss becomes.
Source note: Othello, Act 1, Scene 3; the Duke urges Brabantio not to compound an irreversible loss by continuing to feed it with fresh grief.
“To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on.”
Grief over what cannot be changed can become a second injury when it prevents attention to what can still be done.
Source note: Othello, Act 1, Scene 3; the Duke urges Brabantio not to compound an irreversible loss by continuing to feed it with fresh grief.
“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”
Speed without judgment can undermine the very goal a person is pursuing, so patience becomes part of effective action.
Source note: Act 2, Scene 3; Friar Laurence urges Romeo to move with greater care.
“The quality of mercy is not strained.”
Portia begins by arguing that real mercy cannot be forced; its moral value comes from being freely given rather than mechanically compelled.
Source note: The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1; opening of Portia’s mercy speech during the trial.
“But mercy is above this sceptered sway.”
The speech places mercy above the visible instruments of authority, suggesting that restraint can represent a higher form of power than punishment.
Source note: The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1; Portia contrasts mercy with the coercive force symbolized by a monarch’s scepter.
“It is twice blest: it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”
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 note: The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1; Portia explains why mercy benefits both sides.
“We do pray for mercy, and that same prayer doth teach us all to render the deeds of mercy.”
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 note: The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1; conclusion of the central argument in Portia’s mercy speech.
“The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.”
Prospero chooses deliberate mercy over retaliation, presenting forgiveness not as weakness but as the more difficult exercise of reason and character.
Source note: The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1; Prospero decides against vengeance after considering the suffering of his enemies.