Timon of Athens

By William Shakespeare

QUOTATION: Men must learn now with pity to dispense,
For policy sits above conscience.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. 1st Stranger, in Timon of Athens, act 3, sc. 2, l. 86-7.

QUOTATION: ‘Tis not enough to help the feeble up,
But to support him after.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Timon, in Timon of Athens, act 1, sc. 1, l. 107-8.

QUOTATION: Here’s that which is too weak to be a sinner,
Honest water, which ne’er left man i’ th’ mire.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Apemantus, in Timon of Athens, act 1, sc. 2, l. 58-9.

QUOTATION: No villainous bounty yet hath passed my heart;
Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Timon, in Timon of Athens, act 2, sc. 2, l. 173-4.

QUOTATION: Let’s shake our heads and say,
As ‘twere a knell unto our master’s fortunes,
We have seen better days.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Flavius, in Timon of Athens, act 4, sc. 2, l. 27.

QUOTATION: I am a humble suitor to your virtues;
For pity is the virtue of the law,
And none but tyrants use it cruelly.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Alcibiades, in Timon of Athens, act 3, sc. 5, l. 7-9.

QUOTATION: My long sickness
Of health and living now begins to mend,
And nothing brings me all things.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Timon, in Timon of Athens, act 5, sc. 1, l. 186-8.

QUOTATION: O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us!
Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt,
Since riches point to misery and contempt?
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Flavius, in Timon of Athens, act 4, sc. 2, l. 30-2.

QUOTATION: A thousand moral paintings I can show
That shall demonstrate these quick blows of Fortune’s
More pregnantly than words.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Painter, in Timon of Athens, act 1, sc. 1.

QUOTATION: His poor self,
A dedicated beggar to the air,
With his disease of all-shunned poverty,
Walks, like contempt, alone.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. 2nd Servant, in Timon of Athens, act 4, sc. 2, l. 12-15.

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