The Merchant of Venice Quotes

In sooth I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you.

– William Shakespeare

Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.

– William Shakespeare

I am Sir Oracle,
And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!

– William Shakespeare

In Belmont is a lady richly left,
And she is fair, fairer than the word,
Of wondrous virtues.

– William Shakespeare

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

Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice.

– William Shakespeare

Fish not, with this melancholy bait,
For this fool gudgeon, this opinion.

– William Shakespeare

I do know of these
That therefore only are reputed wise
For saying nothing.

– William Shakespeare

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 to be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.

– William Shakespeare

When he is best, he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

– William Shakespeare

An honest exceeding poor man.

– William Shakespeare

A goodly apple rotten at the heart:
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

– William Shakespeare

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

– William Shakespeare

What! must I hold a candle to my shames?

– William Shakespeare

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

– William Shakespeare

Ships are but boards, sailors but men: there be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves.

– William Shakespeare

How like a fawning publican he looks!
I hate him for he is a Christian;
But more for that in low simplicity
He lends out money gratis, and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice.

– William Shakespeare

They are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing.

– William Shakespeare

In the twinkling of an eye.

– William Shakespeare

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. What news on the Rialto?

– William Shakespeare

Still have I borne it with an ancient shrug,
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is mine own.

– William Shakespeare

Many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me.

– William Shakespeare

Mislike me not for my complexion,
The shadowed livery of the burnished sun.

– William Shakespeare

If I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
He hates our sacred nation, and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate,
On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift,
Which he calls interest.

– William Shakespeare

Young in limbs, in judgment old.

– William Shakespeare

Thus hath the candle singed the moth.
O, these deliberate fools!

– William Shakespeare