Shakespeare's Freedom Quotes

“He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies, and what’s his reason?—I am a Jew. (3.1.46–49)”
― Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespeare's Freedom

“Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,     For suff ’rance is the badge of all our tribe. (1.3.105–6)”
― Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespeare's Freedom

“And all for use of that which is mine own.     Well then, it now appears you need my help.     Go to, then. You come to me, and you say     ‘Shylock, we would have moneys’—you say so,     You, that did void your rheum upon my beard,     And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur     Over your threshold. (1.3.107–15)”
― Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespeare's Freedom

“You call me misbeliever, cut-throat, dog,     And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,”
― Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespeare's Freedom

“the government-controlled Saudi daily Al-Riyadh published a column declaring that “the Jews’ spilling human blood to prepare pastry for their holidays is a well-established fact.”
― Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespeare's Freedom

“Therefore, Jew,     Though justice be thy plea, consider this:     That in the course of justice none of us     Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,     And that same prayer doth teach us all to render     The deeds of mercy. (4.1.192–97)”
― Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespeare's Freedom

“The quality of mercy is not strained.     It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven     Upon the place beneath. (4.1.179–81)”
― Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespeare's Freedom

“The weariest and most loathèd worldly life     That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment     Can lay on nature is a paradise     To what we fear of death.”
― Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespeare's Freedom

“Take physic, pomp; Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou mayst shake the superflux to them, And show the heavens more just. (3.4.34–37)”
― Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespeare's Freedom