The collection / 9,575 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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9,575 results · Page 25 of 399Play this collection ▷

01c. 1590 AD

That daffed the world aside, And bid it pass.

William Shakespeare / quote

02c. 1590 AD

All plumed like estridges that with the wind Baited like eagles having lately bathed; Glittering in golden coats, like images; As full of spirit as the month of May, And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer.

William Shakespeare / quote

03c. 1590 AD

I saw young Harry, with his beaver on, His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd, Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury, And vaulted with such ease into his seat As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds, To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

William Shakespeare / quote

04c. 1590 AD

The cankers of a calm world and a long peace.

William Shakespeare / quote

05c. 1590 AD

A mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I 'll not march through Coventry with them, that 's flat: nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on; for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There 's but a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like an herald's coat without sleeves.

William Shakespeare / quote

06c. 1590 AD

Food for powder, food for powder; they 'll fill a pit as well as better.

William Shakespeare / quote

07c. 1590 AD

To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest.

William Shakespeare / quote

08c. 1590 AD

I would 't were bedtime, Hal, and all well.

William Shakespeare / quote

09c. 1590 AD

Honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on,—how then? Can honour set to a leg? no: or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour; what is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no. 'T is insensible, then? yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I 'll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism.

William Shakespeare / quote

10c. 1590 AD

Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere.

William Shakespeare / quote

11c. 1590 AD

This earth that bears thee dead Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.

William Shakespeare / quote

12c. 1590 AD

Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave, But not remember'd in thy epitaph!

William Shakespeare / quote

13c. 1590 AD

I could have better spared a better man.

William Shakespeare / quote

14c. 1590 AD

The better part of valour is discretion.

William Shakespeare / quote

Meaning: Courage works best with judgement: choosing when not to take an unnecessary risk can be wiser than proving bravery through reckless action.

15c. 1590 AD

Full bravely hast thou fleshed Thy maiden sword.

William Shakespeare / quote

16c. 1590 AD

Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath; and so was he. But we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock.

William Shakespeare / quote

17c. 1590 AD

I 'll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly.

William Shakespeare / quote

18c. 1590 AD

Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless, So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone, Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night, And would have told him half his Troy was burnt.

William Shakespeare / quote

19c. 1590 AD

Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news Hath but a losing office, and his tongue Sounds ever after as a sullen bell, Remember'd tolling a departing friend.

William Shakespeare / quote

20c. 1590 AD

I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.

William Shakespeare / quote

21c. 1590 AD

A rascally yea-forsooth knave.

William Shakespeare / quote

22c. 1590 AD

Some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time.

William Shakespeare / quote

23c. 1590 AD

We that are in the vaward of our youth.

William Shakespeare / quote

24c. 1590 AD

For my voice, I have lost it with halloing and singing of anthems.

William Shakespeare / quote