Famous Quotations from 1 Henry IV

So shaken as we are, so wan with care. (1.1)

In those holy fields
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail'd
For our advantage on the bitter cross. (1.1)

Let us be Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon. (1.2)

What, in thy quips and thy quiddities? (1.2)

Shall there be gallows standing in England
when thou art king, and resolution thus
fobbed as it is with the rusty curb of old
father antick, the law? (1.2)

Thou hast the most unsavoury similes. (1.2)

I would to God thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought. (1.2)

O! thou hast damnable iteration, and art, indeed, able to corrupt a saint. (1.2)

Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal;
'tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation. (1.2)

If he fight longer than he sees reason,
I'll forswear arms. (1.2)

He will give the devil his due. (1.2)

If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they seldom come, they wished for come. (1.2)

Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reap'd
Showed like a stubble-land at harvest-home;
He was perfumed like a milliner,
And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
He gave his nose and took 't away again. (1.3)

So pestered with a popinjay. (1.3)

And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
He called them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility. (1.3)

God save the mark. (1.3)

The blood more stirs
To rouse a lion than to start a hare! (1.3)

By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap
To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon,
Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
And pluck up drowned honour by the locks. (1.3)

I am bewitched with the rogue's company.
If the rascal have not given me medicines
to make me love him, I'll be hanged. (2.2)

Go hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters! (2.2)

It would be argument for a week, laughter for
a month, and a good jest for ever. (2.2)

Falstaff sweats to death,
And lards the lean earth as he walks along.(2.2)

Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. (2.3)

Constant you are,
But yet a woman: and for secrecy,
No lady closer; for I well believe
Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know. (2.3)

Brain him with his lady's fan. (2.3)

Away, you trifler! Love! I love thee not,
I care not for thee, Kate: this is no world
To play with mammets and to tilt with lips:
We must have bloody noses and cracked crowns. (2.3)

A plague of all cowards, still say I. (2.4)

There live not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat and grows old. (2.4)

Three misbegotten knaves in Kendal green. (2.4)

These lies are like the father that begets them;
gross as a mountain, open, palpable. (2.4)

Give you a reason on compulsion!
If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries,
I would give no man a reason upon compulsion. (2.4)

Mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down. (2.4)

Instinct is a great matter, I was a coward on instinct. (2.4)

No more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me! (2.4)

A plague of sighing and grief!
It blows a man up like a bladder. (2.4)

That roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly,
that reverend vice, that grey iniquity,
that father ruffian, that vanity in years. (2.4)

If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked! (2.4)

Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world. (2.4)

Play out the play. (2.4)

Diseased Nature oftentimes breaks forth
In strange eruptions. (3.1)

I am not in the roll of common men. (3.1)

While you live, tell truth and shame the devil! (3.1)

I had rather be a kitten and cry mew
Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers. (3.1)

But in the way of bargain, mark ye me,
I 'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. (3.1)

A deal of skimble-skamble stuff. (3.1)

Now I perceive the devil understands Welsh. (3.1)

Exceedingly well read. (3.1)

A good mouth-filling oath. (3.1)

To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little
More than a little is by much too much. (3.2)

I have more flesh than another man, and therefore more frailty. (3.3)

Company, villanous company, hath been the spoil of me. (3.3)

Rob me the exchequer. (3.3)

This sickness doth infect
The very life-blood of our enterprise.
(4.1)

That daffed the world aside,
And bid it pass. (4.1)

All plumed like estridges that with the wind
Baited like eagles having lately bathed;
Glittering in golden coats, like images;
As full of spirit as the month of May,
And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer. (4.1)

Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily. (4.1)

I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,
Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat
As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus
And witch the world with noble horsemanship. (4.1)

The cankers of a calm world and a long peace. (4.2)

I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream. (4.2)

Tut, tut; good enough to toss;
food for powder, food for powder;
they'll fill a pit as well as better:
tush, man, mortal men, mortal men. (4.2)

Greatness knows itself. (4.3)

For mine own part, I could be well content To entertain the lag-end of my life With quiet hours. (5.1)

Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it. (5.1)

Honour pricks me on. Yea, but
how if honour prick me off when I come
on? How then? Can honour set to a leg?
No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound?
No. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then?
No. What is honour? A word. What is in that word?
Honour. What is that honour? Air. (5.1)

Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere. (5.4)

This earth that bears thee dead
Bears not alive so stout a gentleman. (5.4)

Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,
But not remember'd in thy epitaph! (5.4)

I could have better spared a better man. (5.4)

The better part of valour is discretion;
in the which better part I have saved my life. (5.4)

I'll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly,
as a nobleman should do. (5.4)
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