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William Shakespeare on Veterans Day

1564–1616 England

← All quotes by William Shakespeare

76 quotes

We measured swords and parted.

Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth.

As You Like It (1599)

We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail.

Macbeth (1605)

O, thy vile lady!
She has robbed me of my sword.

With his own sword,
Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta’en
His head from him.

I thought upon one pair of English legs
Did march three Frenchmen.

Henry V (1599)

I knew him a good backsword man.

Now the good gods forbid
That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude
Towards her deserved children is enroll'd
In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam
Should now eat up her own!

I would my son
Were in Arabia and thy tribe before him,
His good sword in his hand.

Blow, wind! come, wrack!
At least we'll die with harness on our back.

Macbeth (1605)

You must not think
That we are made of stuff so fat and dull
That we can let our beard be shook with danger
And think it pastime.

Had I a dozen sons,—each in my love alike, * * * I had rather have eleven die nobly for their country, than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.

I and my sword will earn our chronicle.

I said an elder soldier, not a better.
Did I say, better?

Julius Cæsar (1599)

Here is my keen-edg’d sword,
Deck’d with five flower-de-luces on each side,
The which at Touraine, in Saint Katharine’s churchyard,
Out of a great deal of old iron I chose forth.

He did look far
Into the service of the time, and was
Discipled of the bravest; he lasted long;
But on us both did haggish age steal on
And wore us out of act.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: William Shakespeare (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.