William Shakespeare Quotes About Humanity

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.

As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7, Jaques; 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Jack R. Crawford, printed page 42 / Wikisource scan leaf 54. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” opens Jaques’s seven-ages speech after Duke Senior compares human suffering with theatrical pageants. The metaphor remains dramatic character speech about roles and aging, not Shakespeare speaking autobiographically.

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

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

Act 5, Scene 1.

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

Act 1, Scene 2; Ferdinand describes the terror surrounding the shipwreck.

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.