Quotes from the 1500s–1600s

When you get rid of what is bad, be careful not to lose what is good along with it.

Richard says the winter of the family's unhappiness has been turned into glorious summer by his brother, King Edward IV. The famous half-line is usually quoted as if it meant the opposite.

Juliet asks why Romeo has to be a Montague, the son of her family's enemy. “Wherefore” means “why,” not “where.”

Lysander comforts Hermia, whose father forbids their marriage, by saying true love has always faced obstacles. It is a promise that trouble does not mean love is false.

A joke turned into a proverb: even a father may not truly know his child. Shakespeare reverses the older saying that it is a wise child who knows its own father.

The melancholy Jaques compares life to a play in seven acts, from baby to old age. It is a witty, gloomy view of life that the play quietly answers.

Caesar tells his wife that cowards suffer death over and over in their fears, while the brave face it only once. He says it on the morning he is murdered.

Latin for “You too, Brutus?” In Shakespeare's play these are Caesar's dying words when he sees his friend Brutus among his killers. The phrase now means shock at being betrayed by someone you trusted.

Polonius declares that being brief is the essence of intelligence, in the middle of one of the longest-winded speeches in the play. “Wit” meant good sense, not just humor.

Don't borrow money and don't lend it, because a loan can cost you both the money and the friend, and borrowing makes you careless with what you have.

Watching a play, Queen Gertrude says the actress playing a queen promises too much love and loyalty to be believed. “Protest” meant “vow,” not “object.”

Polonius's parting advice to his son Laertes: be honest with yourself, and you will be honest with others. It is good advice from a character who rarely follows it.

Hamlet asks whether it is better to live and endure life's suffering or to die and end it, and concludes that fear of what comes after death keeps people going.

Shakespeare defines true love as constant: it does not change when circumstances change, and it does not fade with time or age.

The poet decides the beloved is better than a summer's day, which is too short and changeable, and promises that the poem itself will keep their beauty alive forever.

The song of the angels to the shepherds on the night Jesus was born. It praises God and announces peace and goodwill to people on earth.

The greatest love a person can show is to give up their life for others. Jesus says it at the Last Supper, the night before his death.

Part of a poem praising a wise, hard-working, generous woman. Her children and husband honor her because her life has blessed them.

One of the Ten Commandments: treat your parents with respect and care. It is the first commandment that comes with a promise, a long life in the land.

Paul tells a young church facing hardship to keep giving thanks whatever happens. The point is gratitude in every situation, not pretending bad things are good.

A call to thank God because he is good and his faithful love never runs out. It works as a refrain, repeated at the start of several psalms.

A prayer to understand how short life is, so that we spend our days wisely.

The habits and values children learn early stay with them for life, so guide them well while they are young.

A promise of total loyalty: wherever you go, I go; your people will be my people, and your God my God.

Someone who can do many things but none of them really well. Today it is often turned around to praise people with broad skills.

Donne, seriously ill and hearing a funeral bell, reflects that every person is part of humanity, so every death diminishes us all. The same passage ends with “for whom the bell tolls.”

Descartes doubted everything he could, and found one thing he could not doubt: that he was doubting, and therefore thinking, and therefore existed.

Family ties are stronger than any other bond, so relatives should stand by each other first.

Newton credits earlier scientists for making his discoveries possible. He borrowed the image of dwarfs on giants' shoulders from medieval scholars.

A rough, practical guide based on experience rather than exact measurement or theory.