#Character Quotes

“Benvolio- "By my head, here come the Capulets." Mercutio- "By my heel, I care not.”

“Some report a sea-maid spawn'd him; some that he was begot between two stock-fishes. But it is certain that when he makes water his urine is congealed ice.”

“Free from gross passion or of mirth of anger constant spirit, not swerving with the blood, garnish'd and deck'd in modest compliment, not working with the eye without the ear, and but in purged judgement trusting neither? Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem.”

“In nature there's no blemish but the mind. None can be called deformed but the unkind.”

“Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself are much condemned to have an itching palm.”

“O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?”

“Withal I did infer your lineaments,Being the right idea of your father,Both in your form and nobleness of mind;Laid open all your victories in Scotland,Your discipline in war, wisdom in peace,Your bounty, virtue, fair humility;Indeed, left nothing fitting for your purposeUntouch'd or slightly handled in discourse.”

“His life was gentle; and the elements So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!”

“The leopard does not change his spots.”

“I can see his pridePeep through each part of him.”

“My father names me Autolycus, who being, as I am, littered under Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles.”

“To be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour.”

“I praise God for you, sir: your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange with-out heresy.”

“Such antics do not amount to a man.”

“But I am constant as the Northern Star, Of whose true fixed and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament.”

“My meaning in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me that he is sufficient.”

“This man, lady, hath robb'd many beasts of their particular additions: he is as valiant as a lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant-a man into whom nature hath so crowded humours that his valour is crush'd into folly, his folly sauced with discretion.”

“His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.”

“The thorny pointOf bare distress hath ta'en from me the showOf smooth civility; yet am I inland bredAnd know some nurture.”

“Base men being in love have then a nobility in their natures more than is native to them.”

“Extremity is the trier of spirits.”

“All pride is willing pride.”

“My age is as a lusty winter, frosty but kindly.”

“A good leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; a black beard will turn white; a curl'd pate will grow bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow: but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon; or, rather, the sun, and not the moon, — for it shines bright, and never changes, but keeps his course truly.”

“thou art the best o' the cut-throats”

“I like not fair terms and a villain's mind.”

“Men of few words are the best men." (3.2.41)”

“Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me.”

“Though she be but little, she is fierce!”

“Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, Shall win my love.”

“Let no such man be trusted.”

“A goodly portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent; of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage; and, as I think, his age some fifty, or, by'r Lady, inclining to threescore; and now I remember me, his name is Falstaff.”

“Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are 'cleptAll by the name of dogs: the valued fileDistinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,The housekeeper, the hunter, every oneAccording to the gift which bounteous natureHath in him closed.”

“All offences come from the heart.”

“I know them, yea,And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple;Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong'ring boys,That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave, and slander,Go antickly, and show outward hideousness,And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst;And this is all.”

“Let me have men about me that are fat... Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.”

“Let the end try the man.”

“A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross.”

“Self-command is the main elegance.”

“Plenty and peace breed cowards; hardness ever of hardiness is mother.”

“QUINCE Francis Flute, the bellows-mender. FLUTE Here, Peter Quince. QUINCE Flute, you must take Thisby on you. FLUTE What is Thisby? a wandering knight? QUINCE It is the lady that Pyramus must love. FLUTE Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming.”

“Some eyes threaten like a loaded and levelled pistol, and others are as insulting as hissing or kicking; some have no more expression than blueberries, while others are as deep as a well which you can fall into.”

“Defect in manners is usually the defect of fine perceptions. Elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth.”

“Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact makes much impression on him, and another none.”

“The pest of society is egotists.”

“An honest man, sir, is able to speak for himself, when a knave is not.”

“The hero is a mind of such balance that no disturbances can shake his will, but pleasantly, and, as it were, merrily, he advancesto his own music, alike in frightful alarms and in the tipsy mirth of universal dissoluteness.”

“If the individuals who compose the purest circles of aristocracy in Europe, the guarded blood of centuries, should pass in review,in such manner as that we could, at leisure, and critically inspect their behavior, we might find no gentleman, and no lady; for, although excellent specimens of courtesy and high-breeding would gratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars, we should detect offence. Because, elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth.”

“Valor consists in the power of self-recovery, so that a man cannot have his flank turned, cannot be out-generalled, but put him where you will, he stands.”

“Shall we then judge a country by the majority, or by the minority? By the minority, surely.”