Famous Quotations from Shakespeare's Henry VIII

Famous Quotations from Henry VIII

Order gave each thing view. (1.1.84)

Anger is like
A full-hot horse, who being allow'd his way,
Self-mettle tires him. (1.1.193)

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself. (1.1.140)

'T is but the fate of place, and the rough brake
That virtue must go through. (1.2.87)

If I chance to talk a little wild, forgive me;
I had it from my father. (1.4.26)

Go with me, like good angels, to my end;
And, as the long divorce of steel falls on me,
Make of your prayers one sweet sacrifice,
And lift my soul to heaven. (2.1.77)

The mirror of all courtesy. (2.1.68)

Heaven will one day open
The king's eyes, that so long have slept upon
This bold bad man. (2.2.43)

I would not be a queen
For all the world. (2.2.45)

'T is better to be lowly born,
And range with humble livers in content,
Than to be perked up in a glistering grief
And wear a golden sorrow. (2.3.24)

Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain-tops that freeze,
Bow themselves when he did sing. (3.1.3)

I shall fall
Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
And no man see me more. (3.2.226)

I have touched the highest point of all my greatness;
And from that full meridian of my glory
I haste now to my setting: I shall fall
Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
And no man see me more. (3.2.270)

Press not a falling man too far! (3.2.395)

A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience. (3.2.446)

A load would sink a navy. (3.2.450)

And, when I am forgotten, as I shall be,
And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention
Of me more must be heard of. (3.2.504)

I charge thee, fling away ambition:
By that sin fell the angels. (3.2.512)

Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee;
Corruption wins not more than honesty.
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,
To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not:
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,
Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell,
Thou fall'st a blessed martyr! (3.2.521)

Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies. (3.2.528)

She had all the royal makings of a queen. (4.1.87)

An old man, broken with the storms of state
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye;
Give him a little earth for charity. (4.2.22)

He gave his honours to the world again,
His blessed part to Heaven, and slept in peace. (4.2.29)

So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him! (4.2.31)

He was a man
Of an unbounded stomach. (4.2.33)

Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues
We write in water. (4.2.45)

He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;
Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading:
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not;
But, to those men that sought him, sweet as summer. (4.2.52)

Yet in bestowing, madam,
He was most princely. (4.2.63)

Those twins of learning that he raised in you,
Ipswich and Oxford! (4.2.59)

After my death I wish no other herald,
No other speaker of my living actions,
To keep mine honour from corruption,
Than such an honest chronicler as Griffith. (4.2.69)

To dance attendance on their lordships' pleasures,
And at the door too, like a post with packets. (5.2.27)

'Tis a cruelty
To load a falling man. (5.3.77)

They are too thin and bare to hide offences. (5.3.150)

Those about her
From her shall read the perfect ways of honour. (5.5.37)

Nor shall this peace sleep with her; but as when
The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix,
Her ashes new-create another heir
As great in admiration as herself. (5.5.41)

Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine,
His honour and the greatness of his name
Shall be, and make new nations. (5.5.49)

A most unspotted lily shall she pass
To the ground, and all the world shall mourn her. (5.5.67)

Some come to take their ease
And sleep an act or two. (5.5.85)