Quotes from The Merchant of Venice
23 notable lines from William Shakespeare · c. 1596
All that glisters is not gold.
The quality of mercy is not strained; it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.
Portia, 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?
Shylock, The Merchant of Venice 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?
Shylock, Act III, Scene i The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
Portia, Act IV, Scene i 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?
Shylock, Act III, Scene i All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told: Many a man his life hath sold But my outside to behold.
Scroll in the gold casket, Act II, Scene vii And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice.
Portia, Act IV, Scene i A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel! O wise young judge, how I do honour thee!
Shylock, Act IV, Scene i But love is blind, and lovers cannot see The pretty follies that themselves commit.
Jessica, Act II, Scene vi 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.
Antonio, Act I, Scene iii 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.
Shylock, Act III, Scene i This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood; The words expressly are 'a pound of flesh': if thou dost shed One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate.
Portia, Act IV, Scene i The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.
Lorenzo, Act V, Scene i How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
Portia, Act V, Scene i 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.
Antonio, opening lines, Act I, Scene i I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you.
Shylock, Act I, Scene iii How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears.
Lorenzo, Act V, Scene i I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage, where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one.
Antonio, Act I, Scene i Let me play the fool: With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come, And let my liver rather heat with wine Than my heart cool with mortifying groans.
Gratiano, Act I, Scene i I am never merry when I hear sweet music.
Jessica, Act V, Scene i Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find them, and when you have them, they are not worth the search.
Bassanio, Act I, Scene i I am a tainted wether of the flock, Meetest for death: the weakest kind of fruit Drops earliest to the ground.
Antonio, Act IV, Scene i