Measure For Measure

By William Shakespeare

QUOTATION: But man, proud man,
Dressed in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Isabella, in Measure for Measure, act 2, sc. 2, l. 117-22.

QUOTATION: Man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assur’d,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Isabella, in Measure for Measure, act 2, sc. 2.

QUOTATION: A man whose blood
Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton stings and motions of the sense,
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, study, and fast.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Lucio, in Measure for Measure, act 1, sc. 4, l. 57-61.

QUOTATION: We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,
And let it keep one shape, till custom make it
Their perch and not their terror.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Angelo, in Measure for Measure, act 2, sc. 1, l. 1-4.

QUOTATION: Take, O take, those lips away,
That so sweetly were forsworn;
And those eyes, the break of day,
Lights that do mislead the morn:
But my kisses bring again
Bring again:
Seals of love but sealed in vain,
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British poet. Measure for Measure (IV, i).

QUOTATION: Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, ‘twere all alike
As if we had them not.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Duke, in Measure for Measure, act 1, sc. 1, l. 32-5.

QUOTATION: Lord Angelo is precise,
Stands at a guard with envy, scarce confesses
That his blood flows, or that his appetite
Is more to bread than stone. Hence shall we see
If power change purpose, what our seemers be.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Duke, in Measure for Measure, act 1, sc. 3, l. 50-4.

QUOTATION: Thus can the demigod, Authority
Make us pay down for our offence, by weight,
The words of heaven: on whom it will, it will;
On whom it will not, so; yet still ‘tis just.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Claudio, in Measure for Measure, act 1, sc. 2, l. 120-3.

QUOTATION: No ceremony that to great ones ‘longs,
Not the king’s crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal’s truncheon, nor the judge’s robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Isabella, in Measure for Measure, act 2, sc. 2, l. 59-63.

QUOTATION: I love the people,
But do not like to stage me to their eyes;
Though it do well, I do not relish well
Their loud applause and aves vehement;
Nor do I think the man of safe discretion
That does affect it.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Duke, in Measure for Measure, act 1, sc. 1, l. 67-72.

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