Henry IV, Part Two Quotes

“Presume not that I am the thing I was;
For God doth know, so shall the world perceive,
That I have turn'd away my former self;
So will I those that kept me company.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“O sleep, O gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frightened thee. That thou no more will weigh my eyelids down, And steep my senses in forgetfulness?”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Thou art a very ragged Wart.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures
And of so easy and so plain a stop
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once; we owe God a death: I'll ne'er bear a base mind: an 't be my destiny, so; an't be not, so: no man's too good to serve's prince; and let it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the next.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Virtue is chok'd with foul ambition”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude;
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Know the grave doth gape for thee thrice wider than for other men.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Have you a ruffian that will swear, drink, dance,
Revel the night, rob, murder, and commit
The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Against ill chances men are ever merry,
But heaviness foreruns the good event.
...
Therefore be merry, coz; since sudden sorrow
Serves to say thus: "Some good thing comes tomorrow.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Strike up our drums! Pursue the scatter'd stray.
God, and not we, hath safely fought to day.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh—but that's no marvel; he drinks no wine. There's never none of these demure boys come to any proof; for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood, and making many fish-meals, that they fall into a kind of male green-sickness; and then, when they marry, they get wenches. They are generally fools and cowards-which some of us should be too, but for inflammation. A good sherris-sack hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish and dull and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes; which delivered o'er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of your excellent sherris is the warming of the blood; which before, cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice; but the sherris warms it, and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extremes. It illumineth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain, the heart, who, great and puff'd up with this retinue, doth any deed of courage—and this valour comes of sherris. So that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that sets it a-work; and learning, a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil till sack commences it and sets it in act and use. Hereof comes it that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, sterile, and bare land, manured, husbanded, and till'd, with excellent endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile sherris, that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand sons, the first humane principle I would teach them should be to forswear thin potations and to addict themselves to sack.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“The commonwealth is sick of their own choice;
Their over-greedy love has surfeited.
An habitation giddy and unsure
Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“O God! that one might read the book of fate,
And see the revolution of the times
Make mountains level, and the continent,
Weary of solid firmness, melt itself
Into the sea! and, other times, to see
The beachy girdle of the ocean
Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock,
And changes fill the cup of alteration
With divers liquors!”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Away, you scullion! you rampallian! you fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“O thoughts of men accursed!
Past and to come seems best; things present, worst.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Where's Bardolph?

Page
He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship a horse.

FALSTAFF
I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in
Smithfield: an' I could get me but a wife in the
stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Reply not to me with a fool-born jest.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“We are time's subjects, and time bids begone.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Death is certain.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“Sound drum and trumpets, and to London all;
And more such days and these to us befall!”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“You are as a candle, the better burnt out.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile
In loathsome beds, and leavest the kingly couch
A watch-case or a common 'larum-bell?”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two

“How quickly nature falls into revolt
When gold becomes her object!”
― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two