William Shakespeare 1564-1616 As You Like It John Bartlett 1919 Familiar Quotations


1
Fortune reigns in gifts of the world.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
2
The little foolery that wise men have makes a great show.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
3
Well said: that was laid on with a trowel.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
4
Your heart’s desires be with you!
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
5
One out of suits with fortune.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
6
Hereafter, in a better world than this, I shall desire more love and knowledge of you.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
7
My pride fell with my fortunes.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
8
Cel. Not a word? Ros. Not one to throw at a dog.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 3.
9
O, how full of briers is this working-day world!
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 3.
10
Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 3.



11
We ’ll have a swashing and a martial outside, As many other mannish cowards have.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 3.
12
Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 1.
13
The big round tears Coursed one another down his innocent nose In piteous chase.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 1.
14
“Poor deer,” quoth he, “thou makest a testament As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more To that which had too much.”
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 1.
15
Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 1.
16
And He that doth the ravens feed, Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, Be comfort to my age!
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 3.
17
For in my youth I never did apply Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 3.
18
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, Frosty, but kindly.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 3.
19
O, good old man, how well in thee appears The constant service of the antique world, When service sweat for duty, not for meed! Thou art not for the fashion of these times, Where none will sweat but for promotion.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 3.
20
Ay, now am I in Arden: the more fool I. When I was at home I was in a better place; but travellers must be content.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 4.
21
I shall ne’er be ware of mine own wit till I break my shins against it.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 4.
22
Under the greenwood tree Who loves to lie with me.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 5.
23
I met a fool i’ the forest, A motley fool.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
24
And rail’d on Lady Fortune in good terms, In good set terms.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
25
And then he drew a dial from his poke, And looking on it with lack-lustre eye, Says very wisely, “It is ten o’clock: Thus we may see,” quoth he, “how the world wags.”
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
26
And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe, And then from hour to hour we rot and rot; And thereby hangs a tale. 1
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
27
My lungs began to crow like chanticleer, That fools should be so deep-contemplative; And I did laugh sans intermission An hour by his dial.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
28
Motley ’s the only wear.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
29
If ladies be but young and fair, They have the gift to know it; and in his brain, Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit After a voyage, he hath strange places cramm’d With observation, the which he vents In mangled forms.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
30
I must have liberty Withal, as large a charter as the wind, To blow on whom I please.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
31
The “why” is plain as way to parish church.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
32
Under the shade of melancholy boughs, Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time; If ever you have look’d on better days, If ever been where bells have knoll’d to church, If ever sat at any good man’s feast.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
33
True is it that we have seen better days.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
34
And wiped our eyes Of drops that sacred pity hath engender’d.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
35
Oppress’d with two weak evils, age and hunger.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
36
All the world ’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players. 2 They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard; Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
37
Blow, blow, thou winter wind! Thou art not so unkind As man’s ingratitude.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
38
The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
39
It goes much against my stomach. Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd?
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
40
He that wants money, means, and content is without three good friends.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
41
This is the very false gallop of verses.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
42
Let us make an honourable retreat.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
43
With bag and baggage.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
44
O, wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful wonderful! and yet again wonderful, and after that out of all hooping.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
45
Answer me in one word.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
46
I do desire we may be better strangers.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
47
Time travels in divers paces with divers persons. I ’ll tell you who Time ambles withal, who Time trots withal, who Time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
48
Every one fault seeming monstrous till his fellow-fault came to match it.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
49
Neither rhyme nor reason. 3
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
50
I would the gods had made thee poetical.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
51
Down on your knees, And thank Heaven, fasting, for a good man’s love.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 5.
52
It is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels, in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
53
I have gained my experience.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
54
I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
55
I will scarce think you have swam in a gondola.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
56
I ’ll warrant him heart-whole.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
57
Good orators, when they are out, they will spit.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
58
Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them,—but not for love.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
59
Can one desire too much of a good thing? 4
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
60
For ever and a day.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
61
Men are April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
62
The horn, the horn, the lusty horn Is not a thing to laugh to scorn.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 2.
63
Chewing the food 5 of sweet and bitter fancy.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 3.
64
It is meat and drink to me.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 1.
65
“So so” is good, very good, very excellent good; and yet it is not; it is but so so.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 1.
66
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 1.
67
I will kill thee a hundred and fifty ways.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 1.
68
No sooner met but they looked; no sooner looked but they loved; no sooner loved but they sighed; no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason; no sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 2.
69
How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes!
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 2.
70
Here comes a pair of very strange beasts, which in all tongues are called fools.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 4.
71
An ill-favoured thing, sir, but mine own.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 4.
72
Rich honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house; as your pearl in your foul oyster.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 4.
73
The Retort Courteous;… the Quip Modest;… the Reply Churlish;… the Reproof Valiant;… the Countercheck Quarrelsome;… the Lie with Circumstance;… the Lie Direct.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 4.
74
Your If is the only peacemaker; much virtue in If.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 4.
75
Good wine needs no bush. 6
As You Like It. Epilogue.
76
What a case am I in.
As You Like It. Epilogue.

Note 1.
The same in The Taming of the Shrew, act iv. sc. 1; in Othello, act iii. sc. 1; in The Merry Wives of Windsor, act i. sc. 4; and in As You Like It, act ii. sc. 7. Francis Rabelais: book v. chap. iv. [back]

Note 2.
The world ’s a theatre, the earth a stage,
Which God and Nature do with actors fill.
Thomas Heywood: Apology for Actors. 1612.

A noble farce, wherein kinds, republics, and emperors have for so many ages played their parts, and to which the whole vast universe serves for a theatre.—Montaigne: Of the most Excellent Men. [back]

Note 3.
See Spenser, Quotation 32. [back]

Note 4.
Too much of a good thing.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, part i. book i. chap. vi. [back]

Note 5.
”Cud” in Dyce and Staunton. [back]

Note 6.
You need not hang up the ivy branch over the wine that will sell.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 968. [back]

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