Quotes Shakespeare

1. THE WORLD IS YOUR/ONE’S OYSTER

The Merry Wives of Windsor
Act II, Scene II

Falstaff: I will not lend thee a penny.
Pistol: Why, then, the world’s mine oyster, Which I with sword will open.

Meaning: The world is yours. You can take whatever you make out of it.

2. ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD

The Merchant of Venice
Act II - Scene VII - Prince of Morocco

All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs, in judgement old
Your answer had not been inscroll’d
Fare you well, your suit is cold.

3. BREAK THE ICE

The Taming of the Shrew
* ACT I. SCENE II. Padua. Before HORTENSIO’S house.*

TRANIO.
If it be so, sir, that you are the man
Must stead us all, and me amongst the rest;
And if you break the ice, and do this feat,
Achieve the elder, set the younger free
For our access, whose hap shall be to have her
Will not so graceless be to be ingrate.

4. TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING

As You Like It
Act IV, Scene 1 The forest

Rosalind. Are you not good?
Orlando. I hope so.
Rosalind. Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing? Come,
sister, you shall be the priest, and marry us. Give me your hand,
Orlando. What do you say, sister?
Orlando. Pray thee, marry us.
Celia. I cannot say the words.
Rosalind. You must begin ‘Will you, Orlando’
Celia. Go to. Will you, Orlando, have to wife this Rosalind?
Orlando. I will.

5. TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE

Hamlet
Act 1. Scene III

LORD POLONIUS
Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay’d for. There; my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch’d, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!