The Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations

Every quotation a nineteenth-century speaker or writer might want, grouped under its subject, with the author, the date and the source given as exactly as Hoyt could manage.

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Murder: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations

He mourns the dead who lives as they desire.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night II. L. 24.
Carcasses bleed at the sight of the murderer.— BURTON — Anatomy of Melancholy. Pt. I. Sec. I. Memb. II. Subsec. V.
Blood, though it sleep a time, yet never dies. The gods on murtherers fix revengeful eyes.— GEO. CHAPMAN — The Widow's Tears. Act V. Sc. IV.
Murder may pass unpunish'd for a time, But tardy justice will o'ertake the crime.— DRYDEN — The Cock and the Fox. L. 285.
Murder, like talent, seems occasionally to run in families.— GEORGE HENRY LEWES — Physiology of Common Life. Ch. XII.
One murder made a villain, Millions a hero.— Princes were privileg'd
To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime. Ah! why will kings forget that they are men, And men that they are brethren?— BISHOP PORTEUS — Death. L. 154.
Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time, Ere humane statute purg'd the gentle weal; Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd Too terrible for the ear: the time has been, That, when the brains were out, the man would die, And there an end; but now they rise again, With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, And push us from our stools: this is more strange Than such a murder is.— Shakespeare — Macbeth. Act III. Sc. 4. L. 76.
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 622.
He took my father grossly, full of bread; With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May; And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?— Shakespeare — S. Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 80.
Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange and unnatural.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 5. L. 27.
No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act IV. Sc. 7. L. 128.
O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! Thou art the ruins of the noblest man That ever lived in the tide of times. Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood Over thy wounds now do I prophesy. Julius Cæsar. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 254. The great King of kings Hath in the table of his law commanded That thou shalt do no murder: and wilt thou, then, Spurn at his edict and fulfill a man's?— Shakespeare — Richard III. Act I. Sc. 4. L. 200.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red. C.— Shakespeare — Macbeth. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 60.
Cast not the clouded gem away, Quench not the dim but living ray, - My brother man, Beware! With that deep voice which from the skies Forbade the Patriarch's sacrifice, God's angel cries, Forbear!— WHITTIER — Human Sacrifice. Pt. VII.
One to destroy is murder by the law, And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe; To murder thousands takes a specious name, War's glorious art, and gives immortal fame.— YOUNG — Love of Fame. Satire VII. L. 55.
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