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Sir, my circumstances,
Being so near the truth as I will make them,
Must first induce you to believe; whose strength
I will confirm with oath, which I doubt not
You'll give me leave to spare when you shall find
You need it not.
Topic: Circumstance
Source: Cymbeline (Iachimo at II, iv)
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To leave frivolous circumstances, I pray you tell Signior
Lucentio that his father is come from Pisa and is here at the
door to speak with him.
Topic: Circumstance
Source: The Taming of the Shrew (Petruchio at V, i)
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That is the way to lay the city flat,
To bring the roof to the foundation,
And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges,
In heaps and piles of ruin.
Topic: Cities
Source: Coriolanus (Cominius at III, i)
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What is the city but the people?
Topic: Cities
Source: Coriolanus (Sicinius at III, i)
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I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God
reward him. If I do grow great, I'll grow less; for I'll purge,
and leave sack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman should do.
Topic: Cleanliness
Source: King Henry the Fourth, Part I (Falstaff at V, iv)
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How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
Topic: Cliches and One-Liners
Source: None
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Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
By th' mass and 'tis, like a camel indeed.
Methinks it is like a weasel.
It is backed like a weasel.
Or like a whale.
Very like a whale.
Topic: Clouds
Source: Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Hamlet & Polonius at III, ii)
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My prophecy is but half his journey yet,
For yonder walls, that pertly front your town,
Yon towers, whose wanton tops do buss the clouds,
Must kiss their own feet.
Topic: Clouds
Source: The History of Troilus and Cressida (Ulysses at IV, v)
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I have heard
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of the day, and at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine; and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.
Topic: Cocks
Source: Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Horatio at I, i)
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Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry cock-a-diddle-dowe.
Topic: Cocks
Source: The Tempest (Ariel at I, ii)
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The early village cock
Hath twice done salutation to the morn:
Your friends are up and buckle on their armor.
Topic: Cocks
Source: The Tragedy of King Richard the Third (Ratcliffe at V, iii)
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If it be honor in your wars to seem
The same you are not,--which, for your best ends,
You adopt your policy--how is it less or worse,
That it shall hold companionship in peace
With honour, as in war: since that to both
It stands in like request?
Topic: Companionship
Source: Coriolanus (Volumnia at III, ii)
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Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.
Topic: Conceit
Source: Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Ghost at III, iv)
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These signs have marked me extraordinary,
And all the courses of my life do show
I am not in the roll of common men.
Topic: Conceit
Source: King Henry the Fourth, Part I (Glendower at III, i)
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Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
Brags of his substance, not of ornament.
They are but beggars that can count their worth;
But my true love is grown to such excess
I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth.
Topic: Conceit
Source: Romeo and Juliet (Juliet at II, vi)
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Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, brags of his substance: they are but beggars who can count their worth.
Topic: Conceit
Source: None
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Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
But with a crafty madness keeps aloof
When we would bring him on to some confession
Of his true state.
Topic: Confession
Source: Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Guildenstern at III, i)
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Confess yourself to heaven,
Repent what's past, avoid what is to come,
And do not spread the compost on the weeds
To make them ranker.
Topic: Confession
Source: Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Hamlet at III, iv)
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Therefore confess thee freely of thy sin;
For to deny each article with oath
Cannot remove nor choke the strong conception
That I do groan withal. Thou art to die.
Topic: Confession
Source: Othello the Moor of Venice (Othello at V, ii)
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A stirring dwarf we do allowance give
Before a sleeping giant.
Topic: Consideration
Source: The History of Troilus and Cressida (Agamemnon at II, iii)
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What you have said
I will consider; what you have to say
I will with patience hear, and find a time
Both meet to hear and answer such high things.
Topic: Consideration
Source: Julius Caesar (Brutus at I, ii)
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Yea, at that very moment
Consideration like an angel came
And whipped th' offending Adam out of him,
Leaving his body as a paradise
T' envelop and contain celestial spirits.
Topic: Consideration
Source: The Life of King Henry the Fifth (Canterbury at I, i)
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When holy and devout religious men
Are at their beads, 'tis much to draw them thence,
So sweet is zealous contemplation.
Topic: Contemplation
Source: The Tragedy of King Richard the Third (Buckingham at III, vii)
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Contemplation makes a rare turkey cock of him. How he jets under
his advanced plumes!
Topic: Contemplation
Source: Twelfth Night, or, What You Will (Fabian at II, v)
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He that is well paid is well satisfied.
Topic: Contentment
Source: None
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Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood.
Topic: Conversation
Source: None
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The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit,
The clock hath strucken twelve upon the bell;
My mistress made it one upon my cheek:
She is so hot because the meat is cold;
The meat is cold because you come not home;
You come not home because you have no stomach;
You have no stomach, having broke your fast;
But we, that know what 'tis to fast and pray,
Are penitent for your default to-day.
Topic: Cookery
Source: The Comedy of Errors (Dromio of Ephesus at I, ii)
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He that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the
grinding.
Have I not tarried?
Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting.
Have I not tarried?
Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening.
Still have I tarried.
Ay, to the leavening; but here's yet in the word 'hereafter' the
kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and
the baking; nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance
to burn your lips.
Topic: Cookery
Source: The History of Troilus and Cressida (Pandarus & Troilus at I, i)
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Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.
Topic: Cookery
Source: Julius Caesar (Brutus at II, i)
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Would the cook were o' my mind!
Topic: Cookery
Source: Much Ado About Nothing (John at I, iii)
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She would have made Hercules have turned spit, yea, and have
cleft his club to make the fire too.
Topic: Cookery
Source: Much Ado About Nothing (Benedick at II, i)
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There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have;
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.
Topic: Courtiers
Source: The Life of King Henry the Eighth (Wolsey at III, ii)
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When workmen strive to do better than well,
They do confound their skill in covetousness,
And oftentimes excusing of a fault
Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse,
As patches set upon a little breach
Discredit more in hiding of the fault
Than did the fault before it was so patched.
Topic: Covetousness
Source: The Life and Death of King John (Pembroke at IV, ii)
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By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if me my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet honor,
I am the most offending soul alive.
Topic: Covetousness
Source: The Life of King Henry the Fifth (King Henry at IV, iii)
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Cowards die many times before their deaths;The valiant never taste of death but once.
Topic: Cowardice
Source: None
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E'en a crow o' th' same nest; not altogether so great as the
first in goodness, but greater a great deal in evil. He excels
his brother for a coward, yet his brother is reputed one of the
best that is. In a retreat he outruns any lackey; marry, in
coming on he has the cramp.
Topic: Cowards
Source: All's Well That Ends Well (Parolles at IV, iii)
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Who knows himself a braggart,
Let him fear this; for it will come to pass
That every braggart shall be found an ass.
Topic: Cowards
Source: All's Well That Ends Well (Parolles at IV, iii)
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You souls of geese,
That bear the shapes of men, how have you run
From slaves that apes would men!
Topic: Cowards
Source: Coriolanus (Marcius at I, iv)
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So cowards fight when they can fly no further;
So doves do peck the falcon's piercing talons;
So desperate thieves, all hopeless of their lives,
Breathe out invectives 'gainst the officers.
Topic: Cowards
Source: King Henry the Sixth, Part III (Clifford at I, iv)
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Thou dost shame
That bloody spoil. Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward!
Thou little valiant, great in villainy!
Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!
Thou fortune's champion, that dost never fight
But when her humorous ladyship is by
To teach thee safety!
Topic: Cowards
Source: The Life and Death of King John (Constance at III, i)
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Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,'
Like the poor cat i' th' adage?
Topic: Cowards
Source: Macbeth (Lady Macbeth at I, vii)
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How many cowards whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
Who inward searched, have livers white as milk!
Topic: Cowards
Source: The Merchant of Venice (Bassanio at III, ii)
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A coward, a most devout coward; religious in it.
Topic: Cowards
Source: Twelfth Night, or, What You Will (Fabian at III, iv)
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The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,
Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,
Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems
But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burrs,
Losing both beauty and utility.
Topic: Cowslips
Source: The Life of King Henry the Fifth (Burgundy at V, ii)
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The cowslips tall her pensioners be.
In their gold coats spots you see:
Those be rubies, fairy favors;
In those freckles live their savors.
Topic: Cowslips
Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Fairy at II, i)
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Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day,
And with thy bloody and invisible hand
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
Which keeps me pale. Light thickens, and the crow
Makes wing to th' rooky wood.
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
While night's black agents to their prey do rouse.
Topic: Crows
Source: Macbeth (Macbeth at III, ii)
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The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark
When neither is attended; and I think
The nightingale, if she should sing by day
When every goose is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren.
How many thing by season seasoned are
To their right praise and true perfection!
Topic: Crows
Source: The Merchant of Venice (Portia at V, i)
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I must be cruel only to be kind.
Topic: Cruelty
Source: Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Hamlet at III, iv)
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See what a rent the envious Casca made.
Topic: Cruelty
Source: Julius Caesar (Antony at III, ii)
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Men so noble,
However faulty, yet should find respect
For what they have been: 'tis a cruelty
To load a falling man.
Topic: Cruelty
Source: The Life of King Henry the Eighth (Cromwell at V, iii)
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