Great Throughts Treasury

"A light wife doth make a heavy husband. The Merchant of Venice, Act v, Scene 1"

"A lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion living. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act iii. Sc. 1."

"A lioness, with udders all drawn dry, lay couching, head on ground, with cat-like watch when that the sleeping man should stir; for 'tis the royal disposition of that beast to prey on nothing that doth seem as dead. As You Like It, Act iv, Scene 3"

"A little fire is quickly trodden out; Which, being suffer'd, rivers cannot quench. King Henry the Sixth, Part III (Clarence at IV, viii)"

"A little gale will soon disperse that cloud and blow it to the source from whence it came. Thy very beams will dry those vapors up, for every cloud engenders not a storm. King Henry VI, Part III, Act v, Scene 3"

"A little more than kin, and less than kind. Hamlet, Act I, Scene 2"

"A little more than kin, and less than kind! Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Hamlet at I, i)"

"A little snow, tumbled about, anon becomes a mountain."

"A little touch of Harry in the night. Henry V, Act iv, Prologue"

"A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then! Macbeth, Act ii, Scene 2"

"A long-tongued, babbling gossip. Titus Andronicus, Act iv, Scene 2"

"A lover may bestride the gossamers that idles in the wanton summer air, and yet not fall; so light is vanity."

"A load would sink a navy, — too much honour. Henry VIII, Act iii, Scene 2"

"A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind. A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound."

"A lover goes toward his beloved as enthusiastically as a schoolboy leaving his books, but when he leaves his girlfriend, he feels as miserable as the schoolboy on his way to school. (Act 2, scene 2)"

"A loud laugh bespeaks a vacant mind!"

"A mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I 'll not march through Coventry with them, that 's flat: nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on; for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There's but a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like an herald's coat without sleeves. King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 2."

"A' made a finer end and went away an it had been any christom child; a' parted even just between twelve and one, e'en at the turning o' th' tide: for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a' babbled of green fields. "How now, Sir John?" quoth I: "what, man! be o' good cheer." So a' cried out—"God, God, God!" three or four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him a' should not think of God; I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. Henry V, Scene ii"

"A maid that paragons description and wild fame; one that excels the quirks of blazoning pens, and in the essential vesture of creation does tire the ingener. Othello, Act ii, Scene 1"

"A maiden never bold; of spirit so still and quiet that her motion blushed at herself. Othello, Act i, Scene 3"

"A man can die but once, we owe God a death. King Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 2."

"A maiden hath no tongue--but thought."

"A man can no more separate age and covetousness than 'a can part young limbs and lechery. Henry IV, Part II, Act i, Scene 2"

"A man in all the world's new fashion planted, that hath a mint of phrases in his brain. One who the music of his own vain tongue doth ravish like enchanting harmony. Love's Labour 's Lost. Act i. Sc. 1."

"A man I am, cross'd with adversity. The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act iv. Sc. 1."

"A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears; see how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark in thine ear: change places, and handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? King Lear, Act iv, Scene 6"

"A man may smile, and smile, and be a villain. Hamlet, Act i, Scene 5"

"A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Hamlet at IV, iii)"

"A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age. Much Ado About Nothing, Act ii, Scene 3"

"A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but as a drunken sleep, careless, reckless, and fearless of what's past, present, or to come; insensible of mortality, and desperately mortal. Measure for Measure, Act iv, Scene 2"

"A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd; Well fitted in arts, glorious in arms: Nothing becomes him ill that he would well. Love's Labour 's Lost. Act ii. Sc. 1."

"A man of my kidney. The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 5."

"A man that fortune's buffets and rewards hast ta'en with equal thanks. Hamlet, Act iii, Scene 2"

"A man whose blood is very snow-broth; one who never feels the wanton stings and motions of the sense, but doth rebate and blunt his natural edge with profits of the mind, study, and fast. Measure for Measure, Act i, Scene 4"

"A man, young lady! lady, such a man as all the world--why he's a man of wax. Romeo and Juliet, Act i, Scene 3"

"A man that had a wife with such a wit, he might say "Wit, whither, wilt?" As You Like It, Act iv, Scene 1"

"A milksop, one that never in his life felt so much cold as over shoes in snow. Richard III, Act v, Scene 5"

"A merrier man, within the limit of becoming mirth, I never spent an hour’s talk withal: his eye begets occasion for his wit; for every object that the one doth catch, the other turns to a mirth-moving jest; which his fair tongue (conceit's expositor) delivers in such apt and gracious words that aged ears play truant at his tales, and younger hearings are quite ravished; so sweet and voluble is his discourse. Love's Labour 's Lost. Act ii. Sc. 1."

"A man's life's no more than to say, One! Hamlet, Act v, Scene 2"

"A ministering angel shall my sister be. Hamlet, Act v, Scene 1"

"A merry heart goes all the day, your sad tires in a mile-a. A Winter’s Tale, Act iv, Scene 3"

"A morsel for a monarch. Antony and Cleopatra, Act i, Scene 5"

"A mockery king of snow. King Richard II. Act iv. Sc. 1."

"A miracle. Here's our own hands against our hearts. Come, I will have thee, but by this light I take thee for pity. Beatrice: I would not deny you, but by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion, and partly to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption. BENEDICK: Peace. I will stop your mouth. Much Ado About Nothing, Act v, Scene 4"

"A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets; As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun; and the moist star Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Horatio at I, i)"

"A most unspotted lily shall she pass To the ground, and all the world shall mourn her. King Henry VIII. Act v. Sc. 5."

"A murderous guilt shows not itself more soon than love that would seem hid; love's night is noon. Twelfth Night, Act iii, Scene 1"

"A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears, And harsh in sound to thine. -Coriolanus. Act iv. Sc. 5."

"A murderer and a villain, A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe Of your precedent lord, a vice of kings, A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, That from a shelf the precious diadem stole And put it in his pocket-- Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Hamlet at III, iv)"

"A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch, A living-dead man. -The Comedy of Errors. Act v. Sc. 1."