Page 18 of 18 · 1746 quotations totalShort quotes — Page 18
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Source identified1651
Read & copy“I have some desire to enjoy the present good, and some fondness for the past”
Meaning & contextHazlitt states his own temporal bias plainly: he values present experience and retains an attachment to what has already been lived rather than treating only the future as significant.
Source details
Table-Talk, Volume I, Essay III, “On the Past and Future,” Project Gutenberg #3020. “I have some desire to enjoy the present good, and some fondness for the past” appears in the opening paragraph, where Hazlitt states his own lack of sanguine expectation before developing the essay’s argument. This is first-person literary-philosophical reflection, not an empirical claim about how people should value past, present or future.
Source identified1652
Read & copy“Truth happens to an idea.”
Meaning & contextThe compact formulation summarizes James’s pragmatic account in which an idea’s truth is connected with processes of verification and validation rather than treated only as a static label.
Source details
Pragmatism, Lecture VI, “Pragmatism’s Conception of Truth”; Project Gutenberg #5116. Capitalization has been normalized from “Truth HAPPENS to an idea”; the surrounding passage explains verification and validation.
Source identified1653
Read & copy“Theories thus become instruments, not answers to enigmas, in which we can rest.”
Meaning & contextJames describes theories as tools for moving inquiry and experience forward rather than final intellectual resting places that eliminate the need for further testing or revision.
Source details
Pragmatism, Lecture II, “What Pragmatism Means”; Project Gutenberg #5116. Capitalization has been normalized from the represented all-caps sentence while the wording is otherwise preserved.
Source identified1654
Read & copy“Pragmatism unstiffens all our theories, limbers them up and sets each one at work.”
Meaning & contextJames presents pragmatism as a method that makes theories answer to practical consequences and experience instead of allowing abstract formulations to remain rigid and self-sufficient.
Source details
Pragmatism, Lecture II, “What Pragmatism Means”; Project Gutenberg #5116. The sentence follows James’s claim that theories become instruments rather than final answers.
Source identified1655
Read & copy“Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make.”
Meaning & contextThe advice links resolution with prompt action, arguing that intentions shape habit more effectively when they are converted into behavior at the first available opportunity.
Source details
Talks To Teachers, chapter on Habit; Project Gutenberg #16287. This is the opening clause of James’s third habit-forming maxim; the longer sentence also refers to emotional promptings toward desired habits.
Source identified1656
Read & copy“Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day.”
Meaning & contextJames recommends deliberately exercising effort in small ways so that the capacity to act despite difficulty remains practiced rather than being left unused until a crisis.
Source details
Talks To Teachers, chapter on Habit; Project Gutenberg #16287. James calls this his fifth practical maxim about habits. The physiological vocabulary is historical psychology, not modern clinical guidance.
Source identified1657
Read & copy“Continuity of training is the great means of making the nervous system act infallibly right.”
Meaning & contextJames emphasizes uninterrupted practice when establishing a new habit, using the physiological language of his period to argue that consistency makes desired responses increasingly automatic.
Source details
Talks To Teachers, chapter on Habit; Project Gutenberg #16287. The line follows James’s maxim against allowing exceptions before a new habit is secure; its nervous-system terminology is historically contextualized.
Source identified1658
Read & copy“We must know the truth; and we must avoid error.”
Meaning & contextJames separates two intellectual duties—seeking truth and avoiding falsehood—to show that prioritizing one over the other can produce different habits of belief and inquiry.
Source details
The Will to Believe, essay “The Will to Believe”; Project Gutenberg #26659. James immediately argues that truth-seeking and error-avoidance are distinct laws rather than two phrasings of one command.
Source identified1659
Read & copy“Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things.”
Meaning & contextJames resists treating every possible intellectual mistake as catastrophic, because an excessive fear of error can itself prevent inquiry, experience and the possibility of gaining truth.
Source details
The Will to Believe, essay “The Will to Believe”; Project Gutenberg #26659. James is contrasting the risk of being mistaken with the cost of refusing every uncertain intellectual venture.
Source identified1660
Read & copy“If we work thus we shall be men, and our days will be happy and eventful.”
Meaning & contextAfter describing work that engages mind, memory, imagination and the will to create, Morris presents such activity as a way of making daily life active and meaningful.
Source details
Signs of Change, lecture “Useful Work versus Useless Toil”; Project Gutenberg #3053. “Thus” refers to creative work engaging mind, memory, imagination and bodily effort.
Source identified1661
Read & copy“Life in day-tight compartments.”
Meaning & contextOsler compresses his daily-living method into a boundary around the present day: yesterday and tomorrow are acknowledged without being allowed to consume the work and choices available now.
Source details
A Way of Life, section I, printed page 5, London: Constable & Company Ltd. (1913), Project Gutenberg #73116. Osler condenses his proposed daily-living habit into “Life in day-tight compartments,” using the metaphor of watertight ship compartments. This remains historical conduct-of-life rhetoric, not a treatment for anxiety or other health conditions.
Source identified1662
Read & copy“Concentration is an art of slow acquisition”
Meaning & contextConcentration is treated as a capacity built gradually through repeated practice, making sustained attention a training process rather than an instant demand for maximum efficiency.
Source details
A Way of Life, section IV, printed page 14, London: Constable & Company Ltd. (1913), Project Gutenberg #73116. “Concentration is an art of slow acquisition” follows Osler’s advice about steady daily dedication and hour-tight focus. It remains historical educational/professional counsel rather than a quantified modern efficiency rule.
Source identified1663
Read & copy“Realise how much time there is, how long the day is.”
Meaning & contextThe line reframes a day as a substantial block of usable time, encouraging deliberate attention rather than the constant feeling that useful work must be rushed.
Source details
A Way of Life, section IV, printed page 12, London: Constable & Company Ltd. (1913), Project Gutenberg #73116. Osler says “Realise how much time there is, how long the day is” while discussing deliberate control of the mind, study and avoidance of hurry and worry; this collection does not convert the period medical rhetoric into current clinical or productivity guidance.
Source identified1664
Read & copy“calmness amid storm”
Meaning & contextThe compact metaphor describes steadiness under pressure: difficulty remains present, but it need not dictate the quality of judgment or conduct.
Source details
Aequanimitas, 1889 valedictory address. Osler uses the phrase while defining imperturbability for physicians and surgeons; it is retained as a professional ideal in its historical medical setting.
Source identified1665
Read & copy“rise superior to the trials of life”
Meaning & contextEquanimity is presented as a capacity to meet adversity without allowing every trial to overthrow judgment, patience, or the ability to continue useful action.
Source details
Aequanimitas, 1889. The wording appears in Osler’s discussion of patience and equanimity; the source note keeps the medical-graduation context visible rather than treating it as universal therapeutic advice.
Source identified1666
Read & copy“coolness and presence of mind under all circumstances”
Meaning & contextOsler defines professional imperturbability as maintaining enough composure to perceive and act clearly when circumstances are difficult or urgent.
Source details
Aequanimitas, valedictory address delivered at the University of Pennsylvania on May 1, 1889; reviewed against the represented 1906 second edition of Aequanimitas with Other Addresses, Internet Archive identifier aequanimitaswith00osle_0. Osler defines imperturbability as ‘coolness and presence of mind under all circumstances,’ immediately followed by ‘calmness amid storm’ and ‘clearness of judgment in moments of grave peril.’ This remains historical medical-professional rhetoric about composure, not clinical guidance or an instruction to suppress emotion.
Source identified1667
Read & copy“The master-word is Work”
Meaning & contextOsler makes sustained work the organizing principle of his address to medical students, emphasizing disciplined practice over brilliance without application.
Source details
The Master-Word in Medicine, address delivered October 1, 1903 at the opening of the new buildings of the University of Toronto Medical Faculty; reviewed against the represented 1903 John Murphy pamphlet, Internet Archive identifier b28060805. ‘The master-word is Work’ is Osler’s organizing refrain and is followed by his appeal to write the word on the heart and forehead. This remains historical professional rhetoric rather than an endorsement of unsafe working hours or workaholism.
Source identified1668
Read & copy“It is the open sesame to every portal”
Meaning & contextThe metaphor presents work as a means of opening opportunities that remain inaccessible to intention alone, within Osler’s larger argument for disciplined professional effort.
Source details
The Master-Word in Medicine, 1903. “It” refers to the master-word Work in the immediately preceding passage; the source page preserves that antecedent so the excerpt is not detached from its meaning.
Source identified1669
Read & copy“the paramount importance of the work-habit”
Meaning & contextThe address stresses that useful work becomes more dependable when it is habitual, making consistency part of professional formation rather than something left to occasional motivation.
Source details
The Master-Word in Medicine, 1903. Osler immediately acknowledges that acquiring the work-habit can be a hard battle; the context therefore supports persistence without turning the passage into a modern workaholism prescription.
Source identified1670
Read & copy“The great business of man's life, is to answer the end for which he lives;”
Voice: Authorial / signed preface voice · William Penn (signed preface voice)
Meaning & contextPenn frames a meaningful life in explicitly Christian terms: a person’s central task is to live toward the religious purpose for which Penn believes human life was given.
Source details
No Cross, No Crown, Preface, Project Gutenberg #44895. Penn opens by saying that the great business of life is to answer the end for which one lives, immediately defining that end as glorifying God and saving one’s soul. The frozen catalog retains only the opening clause. This is explicitly Quaker Christian devotional exhortation, not a neutral or universal factual definition of life’s purpose.
Source identified1671
Read & copy“Time is what we want most, but what, alas! we use worst;”
Meaning & contextPenn argues that time is indispensable yet commonly spent carelessly, making attention to its use a central responsibility in the conduct of life.
Source details
Some Fruits of Solitude, Preface, reviewed against the Oxford Text Archive transcription of the licensed 1693 edition. Penn says time is what people want most but use worst and immediately frames stewardship of time in explicitly religious accountability to God, neighbour and self; it remains Quaker conduct-of-life reflection rather than productivity research.
Source identified1672
Read & copy“Though she be but little, she is fierce.”
Voice: Fictional character · Helena
Meaning & contextPhysical size is separated from force of character, giving the line its enduring use as a compact statement of spirited strength.
Source details
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene 2; Helena describes Hermia during the lovers’ quarrel. Verified in the scan-backed 1918 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Willard Higley Durham; direct evidence resolves to the reviewed Act III transcription.
Source identified1673
Read & copy“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
Voice: Fictional character · Lysander
Meaning & contextLove is described as complicated rather than frictionless, which makes the line a durable reminder against idealizing relationships.
Source details
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I, Scene 1; Lysander says this to Hermia while describing the obstacles that repeatedly frustrate lovers. Verified in the scan-backed 1918 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Willard Higley Durham; direct evidence resolves to the reviewed Act I transcription.
Source identified1674
Read & copy“The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact.”
Voice: Fictional character · Theseus
Meaning & contextTheseus links three states through imagination, treating creative perception as the power to see forms and meanings beyond ordinary calculation.
Source details
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V, Scene 1; Theseus skeptically groups the lunatic, lover and poet through imagination. Verified in the scan-backed 1918 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Willard Higley Durham; direct evidence resolves to the reviewed Act V transcription.
Source identified1675
Read & copy“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”
Voice: Fictional character · Mariana
Meaning & contextThe line values trustworthy character above possessions or reputation inherited after death.
Source details
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act III, Scene 5; Mariana warns Diana about Bertram and says that no legacy is so rich as honesty. Verified against Wikisource’s 1910 facsimile transcription of the 1623 First Folio; direct evidence resolves to the reviewed Act III transcription.
Source identified1676
Read & copy“Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie.”
Voice: Fictional character · Helena
Meaning & contextBefore assuming rescue must come from outside, the line asks what capacity, choice, or effort is already available within.
Source details
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act I, Scene 1; Helena resolves to act rather than ascribe every possibility to fate. Verified against Wikisource’s 1910 facsimile transcription of the 1623 First Folio (folio spelling “Our remedies oft in our selues do lye”); direct evidence resolves to the reviewed Act I transcription.
Source identified1677
Read & copy“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
Voice: Fictional character · Countess of Roussillon
Meaning & contextThe 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 identified1678
Read & copy“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”
Voice: Fictional character · First Lord
Meaning & contextHuman life is pictured as a fabric woven from favorable and painful threads rather than a story made from only one kind of experience.
Source details
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act IV, Scene 3; the First Lord reflects that human life is woven from good and ill together while discussing Bertram and Parolles. Verified against Wikisource’s 1910 facsimile transcription of the 1623 First Folio (folio spelling “The webbe of our life, is of a mingled yarne”); direct evidence resolves to the reviewed Act IV transcription.
Source identified1679
Read & copy“Sweet are the uses of adversity.”
Voice: Fictional character · Duke Senior
Meaning & contextAdversity is presented as capable of yielding insight or value even when the experience itself is unwelcome.
Source details
As You Like It, Act II, Scene 1, Duke Senior; 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Jack R. Crawford, printed page 24 / Wikisource scan leaf 36. “Sweet are the uses of adversity” occurs in Duke Senior’s Forest of Arden reflection on exile, winter and the lessons he claims to find outside court life. It remains fictional dramatic speech rather than Shakespeare’s autobiographical advice or a modern psychological claim about hardship.
Source identified1680
Read & copy“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
Voice: Fictional character · Jaques
Meaning & contextThe metaphor treats life as a sequence of roles and stages, inviting reflection on identity, aging, and impermanence.
Source details
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.
Source identified1681
Read & copy“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
Voice: Fictional character · Touchstone
Meaning & contextRecognizing the limits of one’s knowledge is presented as a mark of wisdom, while certainty about one’s own wisdom can be evidence of the opposite.
Source details
As You Like It, Act V, Scene 1, Touchstone; 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Jack R. Crawford, printed page 89 / Wikisource scan leaf 101. Touchstone says, “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool,” while verbally outmaneuvering William in a comic exchange over Audrey. The maxim remains fictional comic dialogue rather than a direct Shakespearean self-help proposition.
Source identified1682
Read & copy“The readiness is all.”
Voice: Fictional character · Hamlet
Meaning & contextThe emphasis is not on controlling every outcome but on meeting what comes with preparedness and acceptance.
Source details
Act 5, Scene 2.
Source identified1683
Read & copy“This above all: to thine own self be true.”
Voice: Fictional character · Polonius
Meaning & contextPolonius frames integrity as consistency between inward conviction and outward conduct, although the advice belongs to a fallible fictional counselor.
Source details
Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3; Polonius gives Laertes this advice before Laertes leaves for France.
Source identified1684
Read & copy“To be, or not to be: that is the question.”
Voice: Fictional character · Hamlet
Meaning & contextThe line condenses an existential dilemma into a question about endurance, action, fear, and the unknown consequences of death.
Source details
Act 3, Scene 1; Hamlet weighs existence against suffering and uncertainty.
Source identified1685
Read & copy“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”
Voice: Fictional character · Polonius
Meaning & contextListening broadly while speaking selectively is presented as a practical discipline for judgment, relationships, and self-control.
Source details
Act 1, Scene 3; Polonius advises Laertes before his departure.
Source identified1686
Read & copy“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”
Voice: Fictional character · Ophelia
Meaning & contextThe line leaves room between present identity and future possibility, making it useful for reflection on change and potential.
Source details
Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5; Ophelia speaks during her disrupted state, so the line remains dramatic dialogue rather than Shakespearean autobiography.
Source identified1687
Read & copy“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
Voice: Fictional character · Hamlet
Meaning & contextThe line separates events from the judgments people place on them, a useful distinction for thinking about perception and response.
Source details
Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2; Hamlet says this to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern while explaining that Denmark feels like a prison to him. The line is dramatic dialogue, not a detached psychological proposition by Shakespeare.
Source identified1688
Read & copy“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”
Voice: Fictional character · Claudius
Meaning & contextDifficulty often feels cumulative: one loss can arrive alongside others, making the burden larger than any isolated event.
Source details
Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5; Claudius describes multiple troubles arriving together after Polonius’s death.
Source identified1689
Read & copy“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Voice: Fictional character · Hamlet
Meaning & contextThe line warns against treating one explanatory framework as large enough to contain every possible fact or experience.
Source details
Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5.
Source identified1690
Read & copy“The better part of valour is discretion.”
Voice: Fictional character · Falstaff
Meaning & contextCourage is balanced with judgment here: avoiding a needless danger can sometimes be wiser than performing bravery for appearance.
Source details
Henry IV, Part 1, Act V Scene 4; reviewed against the 1917 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Samuel B. Hemingway, printed page 110 / scan leaf 124. Falstaff says 'The better part of valour is discretion' after counterfeiting death during the battle and immediately boasts that this discretion saved his life. It remains comic fictional self-justification rather than a universal rule for courage or risk.
Source identified1691
Read & copy“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
Voice: Fictional character · King Henry IV
Meaning & contextStatus and authority are presented as carrying anxiety and responsibility rather than guaranteeing comfort or peace of mind.
Source details
Henry IV, Part 2, Act III Scene 1; reviewed against the 1921 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Samuel B. Hemingway. King Henry speaks the crown line at the close of his sleepless midnight monologue after contrasting his wakefulness with the sleep of poor subjects and the storm-tossed ship-boy. It remains dramatic kingship rhetoric rather than clinical evidence about leadership stress.
Source identified1692
Read & copy“Men at some time are masters of their fates.”
Voice: Fictional character · Cassius
Meaning & contextCircumstances matter, but people also have moments when their own decisions meaningfully shape what follows.
Source details
Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2, in the 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Lawrence Mason. Cassius says ‘Men at some time are masters of their fates’ immediately before the fuller stars/underlings argument; the retained short record is part of the same local persuasion scene.
Source identified1693
Read & copy“There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”
Voice: Fictional character · Brutus
Meaning & contextBrutus uses the tide metaphor to argue that judgment includes timing: opportunities can require action before circumstances change.
Source details
Julius Caesar, Act IV, Scene 3, in the 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Lawrence Mason. Brutus argues for marching to Philippi and compares opportunity to a tide that must be taken at the flood; the metaphor belongs to a disputed military decision inside the play rather than a context-free guarantee of success.
Source identified1694
Read & copy“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”
Voice: Fictional character · Julius Caesar
Meaning & contextThe contrast suggests that repeated fear can make a person suffer imagined losses long before the real event arrives.
Source details
Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene 2, in the 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Lawrence Mason. Caesar tells Calpurnia, ‘Cowards die many times before their deaths; / The valiant never taste of death but once,’ while rejecting her fear and deciding to go out. The line remains Caesar’s dramatic reasoning, not Shakespeare’s direct personal counsel.
Source identified1695
Read & copy“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
Voice: Fictional character · Cassius
Meaning & contextThe line rejects passive fatalism and places responsibility for circumstances more directly on human decisions, ambition, and action.
Source details
Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2, in the 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Lawrence Mason. Cassius tells Brutus that men can be masters of their fates and immediately continues, ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings.’ This is Cassius’s political persuasion inside the drama, not neutral historical evidence or Shakespeare speaking directly.
Source identified1696
Read & copy“The wheel is come full circle.”
Voice: Fictional character · Edmund
Meaning & contextThe image describes consequences returning to their starting point and fortunes reversing over time.
Source details
King Lear, Act V, Scene III, reviewed against the scan-backed First Folio facsimile. Edmund says 'The Wheele is come full circle, I am heere' after Edgar identifies himself and describes their father's suffering; the retained quote modernizes spelling and trims the following clause.
Source identified1697
Read & copy“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!”
Voice: Fictional character · King Lear
Meaning & contextThe image captures the particular hurt of care being answered by ingratitude within a close family bond.
Source details
King Lear, Act I, Scene IV, reviewed against the scan-backed First Folio facsimile. Lear's serpent's-tooth line occurs inside his curse against Goneril after the reduction of his retinue; it is angry dramatic speech, not a neutral rule about children or family relationships.
Source identified1698
Read & copy“What’s done cannot be undone.”
Voice: Fictional character · Lady Macbeth
Meaning & contextSome consequences cannot be reversed, so the practical question becomes how to respond now rather than how to erase the past.
Source details
Macbeth, Act V, Scene I, reviewed against the scan-backed 1918 Yale text. Lady Macbeth says 'What's done cannot be undone' during the sleepwalking scene; the dramatic context is guilt and psychological disintegration, not generic advice that consequences should simply be accepted.
Source identified1699
Read & copy“There’s daggers in men’s smiles.”
Voice: Fictional character · Donalbain
Meaning & contextFriendly appearance can conceal harmful intent, so trust should consider patterns of conduct rather than expressions alone.
Source details
Macbeth, Act II, Scene III, reviewed against the scan-backed 1918 Yale text and the First Folio facsimile. Donalbain's 'There's daggers in men's smiles' follows Duncan's murder as Malcolm and Donalbain decide to flee; it is fictional suspicion under immediate danger rather than a universal claim about trust.
Source identified1700
Read & copy“The miserable have no other medicine but only hope.”
Voice: Fictional character · Claudio
Meaning & contextWhen circumstances offer little immediate relief, hope can preserve the possibility of endurance without pretending the pain is gone.
Source details
Measure for Measure, Act III, Scene I, Claudio to the disguised Duke. The scan-backed 1910 Methuen facsimile transcription of the 1623 First Folio reads “The miserable haue no other medicine / But onely hope” as Claudio awaits possible execution. The line remains fictional speech under threat of death, not medical treatment guidance or a guarantee that hope resolves suffering.
Source identified1701
Read & copy“The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.”
Voice: Fictional character · Duke of Venice
Meaning & contextPreserving some inward freedom after a loss denies the wrongdoer complete control over what the loss becomes.
Source details
Othello, Act I, Scene III, reviewed against the scan-backed 1910 First Folio facsimile on Wikisource. The Duke tells Brabantio that continuing to spend grief on an irreversible loss only compounds it; the retained modernized wording corresponds to the Folio's 'The rob'd that smiles, steales something from the Thiefe.' It is dramatic counsel inside the scene, not Shakespeare autobiography or clinical grief guidance.
Source identified1702
Read & copy“To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on.”
Voice: Fictional character · Duke of Venice
Meaning & contextGrief over what cannot be changed can become a second injury when it prevents attention to what can still be done.
Source details
Othello, Act I, Scene III, reviewed against the scan-backed 1910 First Folio facsimile on Wikisource. The Duke's 'To mourne a Mischeefe that is past and gon' sentence is part of the same attempt to redirect Brabantio after Desdemona's marriage; this collection preserves modernized spelling and punctuation rather than Folio orthography.
Source identified1703
Read & copy“How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?”
Voice: Fictional character · Iago
Meaning & contextThe image recognizes that wounds and complicated situations change gradually rather than instantly, but the dramatic context warns against automatically treating a persuasive maxim as trustworthy advice.
Source details
Othello, commonly numbered Act II, Scene III in modern editions. In the represented 1910 First Folio facsimile the continuous Cyprus scene is routed as Act II, Scene II; Iago says 'How poore are they that haue not Patience? / What wound did euer heale but by degrees?' while manipulating Roderigo. The edition-specific scene-number difference is preserved explicitly.
Source identified1704
Read & copy“Parting is such sweet sorrow.”
Voice: Fictional character · Juliet
Meaning & contextThe phrase holds affection and pain together: separation hurts precisely because the relationship being left is valued.
Source details
Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2; Juliet speaks as the lovers part for the night.
Source identified1705
Read & copy“It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”
Voice: Fictional character · Romeo
Meaning & contextThe metaphor enlarges personal admiration into a whole horizon, presenting beauty as something that changes the scale of the observer’s world.
Source details
Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2; Romeo continues the dawn imagery after seeing Juliet.
Source identified1706
Read & copy“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”
Voice: Fictional character · Friar Laurence
Meaning & contextSpeed without judgment can undermine the very goal a person is pursuing, so patience becomes part of effective action.
Source details
Act 2, Scene 3; Friar Laurence urges Romeo to move with greater care.
Source identified1707
Read & copy“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!”
Voice: Fictional character · Romeo
Meaning & contextRomeo’s first reaction to Juliet turns visual beauty into illumination, showing how admiration changes the way the surrounding scene is perceived.
Source details
Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5.
Source identified1708
Read & copy“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?”
Voice: Fictional character · Romeo
Meaning & contextRomeo’s question makes Juliet’s appearance seem to transform the night itself, using light as the language of sudden admiration.
Source details
Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2; Romeo sees Juliet at the window.
Source identified1709
Read & copy“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.”
Voice: Fictional character · Juliet
Meaning & contextThe line questions whether labels and inherited identities should determine the value or reality of the person beneath them.
Source details
Act 2, Scene 2; Juliet separates Romeo from the social meaning of his family name.
Source identified1710
Read & copy“All that glisters is not gold.”
Voice: Textual source voice · Casket inscription, read by the Prince of Morocco
Meaning & contextAppearance can imitate value without possessing it, so the line encourages evidence and discernment before admiration or trust.
Source details
Act 2, Scene 7; the inscription warns against judging by outward appearance.
Source identified1711
Read & copy“The quality of mercy is not strained.”
Voice: Fictional character · Portia
Meaning & contextPortia 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 identified1712
Read & copy“But mercy is above this sceptered sway.”
Voice: Fictional character · Portia
Meaning & contextThe speech places mercy above the visible instruments of authority, suggesting that restraint can represent a higher form of power than punishment.
Source details
The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1; Portia contrasts mercy with the coercive force symbolized by a monarch’s scepter.
Source identified1713
Read & copy“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”
Voice: Fictional character · Antonio
Meaning & contextEven respected language can be quoted selectively, so a citation should be judged by context and purpose rather than authority alone.
Source details
The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 3.
Source identified1714
Read & copy“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!”
Voice: Fictional character · Lorenzo
Meaning & contextThe line turns still moonlight into something almost physical and resting, creating beauty through quietness rather than spectacle.
Source details
The Merchant of Venice, Act 5, Scene 1; Lorenzo speaks in the moonlit garden at Belmont.
Source identified1715
Read & copy“Truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long.”
Voice: Fictional character · Launcelot Gobbo
Meaning & contextHidden wrongdoing may remain concealed for a time, but the line expresses confidence that facts and consequences tend eventually to surface.
Source details
The Merchant of Venice, Act 2, Scene 2; Launcelot uses the phrase while revealing his identity to his father.
Source identified1716
Read & copy“It is twice blest: it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”
Voice: Fictional character · Portia
Meaning & contextMercy 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 identified1717
Read & copy“Look how the floor of heaven is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold.”
Voice: Fictional character · Lorenzo
Meaning & contextShakespeare imagines the starry sky as a richly decorated surface, converting an ordinary night view into a crafted visual pattern.
Source details
The Merchant of Venice, Act 5, Scene 1; Lorenzo describes the stars above Belmont.
Source identified1718
Read & copy“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”
Voice: Fictional character · Portia
Meaning & contextA small good action can remain visible precisely because it contrasts with a difficult environment.
Source details
Act 5, Scene 1.
Source identified1719
Read & copy“We do pray for mercy, and that same prayer doth teach us all to render the deeds of mercy.”
Voice: Fictional character · Portia
Meaning & contextPortia 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 identified1720
Read & copy“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”
Voice: Fictional character · Ford
Meaning & contextPunctuality is treated as prudence: arriving early creates margin, while lateness spends time that cannot be restored.
Source details
The Merry Wives of Windsor; a comic line about timing and punctuality.
Source identified1721
Read & copy“What’s past is prologue.”
Voice: Fictional character · Antonio
Meaning & contextThe past is framed as context rather than the whole story, leaving the future open to further action.
Source details
The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1; Antonio says this while urging Sebastian toward a conspiracy against Alonso. The phrase is therefore embedded in morally compromised dramatic persuasion rather than neutral advice.
Source identified1722
Read & copy“My library was dukedom large enough.”
Voice: Fictional character · Prospero
Meaning & contextProspero describes intellectual life as a realm large enough to absorb him, revealing both the power of study and his earlier withdrawal from political responsibility.
Source details
The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2; Prospero explains how deeply he preferred his library to governing Milan.
Source identified1723
Read & copy“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
Voice: Reported speaker · Ferdinand, reported by Ariel
Meaning & contextThe dramatic line relocates evil from an imagined elsewhere into immediate human experience and frightening events in the present.
Source details
Act 1, Scene 2; Ferdinand describes the terror surrounding the shipwreck.
Source identified1724
Read & copy“The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.”
Voice: Fictional character · Prospero
Meaning & contextProspero chooses deliberate mercy over retaliation, presenting forgiveness not as weakness but as the more difficult exercise of reason and character.
Source details
The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1; Prospero decides against vengeance after considering the suffering of his enemies.
Source identified1725
Read & copy“The isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.”
Voice: Fictional character · Caliban
Meaning & contextCaliban’s description complicates the way others see him by giving him one of the play’s most sensitive accounts of sound, place, and beauty.
Source details
The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 2; Caliban reassures Stephano and Trinculo about the mysterious music of the island.
Source identified1726
Read & copy“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
Voice: Fictional character · Prospero
Meaning & contextThe line emphasizes impermanence and the dreamlike brevity of human life.
Source details
Act 4, Scene 1.
Source identified1727
Read & copy“Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that And manage it against despairing thoughts.”
Voice: Fictional character · Proteus
Meaning & contextProteus describes hope as a walking staff for a lover who has been forced away from the person he loves: it offers something to lean on while facing separation. His advice is complicated by his own disloyalty to Valentine.
Source details
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act III, Scene 1: Proteus speaks to Valentine after the Duke banishes him. Although the words sound encouraging in isolation, Proteus has secretly betrayed Valentine’s plan. The MIT play transcription supplies the displayed public-domain wording and scene; this is fictional dialogue rather than Shakespeare’s personal confession.
Source identified1728
Read & copy“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”
Voice: Fictional character · Ulysses
Meaning & contextShared 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.
Source identified1729
Read & copy“Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.”
Voice: Fictional character · Cressida
Meaning & contextAnticipation and active pursuit can carry more energy than possession itself, making the process part of the reward.
Source details
Troilus and Cressida, Act I, Scene 2, Project Gutenberg #1528; Cressida speaks privately after Pandarus leaves. ‘Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing’ occurs in her reflection that people prize what is still ungained and that love can seem sweetest while desire is still suing; she then resolves to conceal her own love. It remains fictional dramatic psychology inside the play’s courtship plot, not a universal motivational or happiness law.
Source identified1730
Read & copy“If music be the food of love, play on.”
Voice: Fictional character · Duke Orsino
Meaning & contextLove is treated as an appetite that can be intensified through beauty, sensation, and repeated emotional stimulation.
Source details
Twelfth Night, Act I, Scene 1, Orsino; 1922 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by George Henry Nettleton, printed page 1 / Wikisource scan leaf 13. “If music be the food of love, play on” opens Orsino’s attempt to use excess music to surfeit and extinguish his appetite for love. It remains fictional dramatic speech shaped by Orsino’s self-dramatizing desire, not Shakespeare speaking autobiographically or a modern psychological claim about music and emotion.
Source identified1731
Read & copy“I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks.”
Voice: Fictional character · Sebastian
Meaning & contextSebastian responds to Antonio’s costly loyalty with repeated thanks while also admitting that words alone are an inadequate repayment for practical care.
Source details
Twelfth Night, Act III, Scene 3, Sebastian; 1922 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by George Henry Nettleton, printed page 56 / Wikisource scan leaf 68. Sebastian tells Antonio, “I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks,” after Antonio explains that concern for Sebastian’s safety drove him onward despite danger in Illyria. It remains fictional gratitude dialogue tied to Antonio’s costly loyalty, not Shakespeare autobiography.
Source identified1732
Read & copy“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.”
Voice: Reported speaker · Maria’s forged letter, read by Malvolio
Meaning & contextThe sentence distinguishes inherited status, earned achievement, and unexpected responsibility, making greatness look less like one single path.
Source details
Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene 5; 1922 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by George Henry Nettleton, printed page 43 / Wikisource scan leaf 55. Malvolio reads “some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them” from Maria’s forged letter written in Olivia’s supposed voice as part of the prank. The maxim remains an embedded deceptive written voice rather than Malvolio’s original saying or Shakespeare’s direct advice about success.
Source identified1733
Read & copy“Omit needless words.”
Meaning & contextConciseness is treated as removal of words that do no useful work, not as a demand that every sentence be short or stripped of necessary detail.
Source details
The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 13, Project Gutenberg #37134; the surrounding paragraph explicitly says detail need not be eliminated.
Source identified1734
Read & copy“Vigorous writing is concise.”
Meaning & contextStrunk links force with economy: prose becomes stronger when each word contributes to the sentence rather than merely increasing its length.
Source details
The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 13, Project Gutenberg #37134; this sentence introduces the explanation of “Omit needless words.”
Source identified1735
Read & copy“Keep related words together.”
Meaning & contextPlacing modifiers and connected elements near one another reduces ambiguity and makes the grammatical relationships in a sentence easier to understand.
Source details
The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 16, Project Gutenberg #37134; the following examples focus on avoiding misplaced modifiers and broken relationships.
Source identified1736
Read & copy“Put statements in positive form.”
Meaning & contextStrunk recommends stating what is true or intended directly when possible instead of making the reader reconstruct the point from repeated negation.
Source details
The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 11, Project Gutenberg #37134; the rule concerns sentence construction, not positive-thinking philosophy.
Source identified1737
Read & copy“Use definite, specific, concrete language.”
Meaning & contextConcrete and specific wording can reduce interpretive work for the reader by replacing vague generalities with language tied to identifiable actions, objects or details.
Source details
The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 12, Project Gutenberg #37134; Strunk follows the heading with examples contrasting vague and concrete phrasing.
Source identified1738
Read & copy“Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.”
Meaning & contextSentence order can create emphasis, and Strunk recommends reserving the strongest final position for the element the sentence most needs the reader to retain.
Source details
The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 18, Project Gutenberg #37134; the principle is extended to sentences in paragraphs and paragraphs in compositions.
Source identified1739
Read & copy“Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic.”
Meaning & contextParagraphing is treated as an organizational decision: grouping one developed topic at a time helps readers follow the structure and movement of an argument.
Source details
The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 8, Project Gutenberg #37134; the book discusses exceptions for very short subjects and rapid narrative.
Source identified1740
Read & copy“Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.”
Meaning & contextWordsworth describes long attention to nature as a dependable source of memory, quietness, and moral perspective.
Source details
Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.
Source identified1741
Read & copy“The Child is father of the Man.”
Meaning & contextAdult character grows from earlier habits of perception, so childhood is presented as a formative source rather than a discarded stage.
Source details
Poem “My Heart Leaps Up.”
Source identified1742
Read & copy“Fair as a star, when only one is shining in the sky.”
Meaning & contextWordsworth makes beauty quiet and easily overlooked: Lucy is compared not to spectacle but to a single star whose isolation makes it more noticeable.
Source details
“She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways,” second stanza.
Source identified1743
Read & copy“Sweet is the lore which Nature brings.”
Meaning & contextNature is presented as a source of knowledge that can complement formal study by training attention and receptiveness.
Source details
The Tables Turned; the line follows Wordsworth’s claim that a vernal wood can teach moral insight.
Source identified1744
Read & copy“Enough of Science and of Art; close up these barren leaves.”
Meaning & contextWordsworth provocatively contrasts formal study with direct experience, not because art or books are worthless but because second-hand learning can crowd out attention.
Source details
The Tables Turned, final stanza; the speaker urges his friend to close the books and bring a receptive heart outdoors.
Source identified1745
Read & copy“Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher.”
Meaning & contextDirect attention to the natural world is offered as a form of learning that complements books and abstract study.
Source details
Poem “The Tables Turned.”
Source identified1746
Read & copy“One impulse from a vernal wood may teach you more of man than all the sages can.”
Meaning & contextExperience in nature is used as a counterweight to abstract instruction, encouraging observation alongside formal learning.
Source details
The Tables Turned; two adjacent lines are joined into one sentence.