The Merchant of Venice Quotes

“You speak an infinite deal of nothing.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“I am not bound to please thee with my answers.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“love is blind
and lovers cannot see
the pretty follies
that themselves commit”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest. It becomes
The thronèd monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings,
But mercy is above this sceptered sway.
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings.
It is an attribute to God himself.
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.
Therefore, Jew, Though justice be thy plea, consider this-
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.”
― Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“One half of me is yours, the other half is yours,
Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason?
I am a Jew.
Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,dimensions, senses, affections, passions?
Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?
If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge?
If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that.
If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge.
If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example?
Why, revenge.
The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
will better the instruction.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano, A stage where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“Tell me where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart, or in the head?”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“By my soul I swear, there is no power in the tongue of man to alter me.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“So may the outward shows be least themselves:
The world is still deceived with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“Madam, you have bereft me of all words,
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins,”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“The moon shines bright: in such a night as this,
When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees,
And they did make no noise, in such a night,
Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls,
And sigh'd his soul toward the Grecian tents,
Where Cressid lay that night.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“Thou calledst me a dog before thou hadst a cause,
But since I am a dog, beware my fangs.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“To do a great right do a little wrong,
And curb this cruel devil of his will.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“He hath disgrac'd me and hind'red me half a million; laugh'd at my losses, mock'd at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated my enemies. And what's his reason? I am a Jew.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“ساءت أفعالهم فقبحت بالناس ظنونهم.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“This making of Christians will raise the price of hogs.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“All things that are, are with more spirit chased than enjoy'd.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“Possiamo chiudere con il passato, ma il passato non chiude con noi.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice