Quotes from Measure for Measure — William Shakespeare
1564–1616 England
← All quotes by William Shakespeare
49 quotes
That in the captain's but a choleric word,
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.
Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so;
Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.
Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes,
That banish what they sue for.
O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook!
Thieves for their robbery have authority
When judges steal themselves.
If he had been as you and you as he,
You would have slipt like him.
I am that way going to temptation,
Where prayers cross.
Spirits are not finely touched
But to fine issues.
For 'tis a physic
That's bitter to sweet end.
There is a kind of character in thy life,
That to the observer doth thy history
Fully unfold.
Our doubts are traitors
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.
Thus can the demi-god Authority
Make us pay down for our offense by weight.
When I would pray and think, I think and pray
To several subjects; Heaven hath my empty words.
How would you be,
If He, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are?
O, fie, fie, fie!
Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade.
Attribution
Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: William Shakespeare (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.