Home › M › Mercy

Mercy: Quotations from Shakespearian Quotations

Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods? Draw near them then in being merciful: Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.— Tit. And. i. 2

The quality of mercy is not strain'd; It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven, Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes. 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown: His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway, It is enthroned in the heart of kings, It is an attribute to God himself: And earthly pow'r doth then show likest God's, When mercy seasons justice.— M.V. iv. 1.

Alas! alas! Why, all the souls that are, were forfeit once; And He that might th' advantage best have took, Found out the remedy: How would you be, If He, who is the top of judgment, should But judge you as you are? O, think on that; And mercy then will breathe within your lips, Like man new made.— M M. ii. 2

I am an humble suitor to your virtues; For pity is the virtue of the law, And none but tyrants use it cruelly.— T. A. iii. 5

If little faults, proceeding on distemper, Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye, When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd, and digested, Appear before us?— H. V. ii. 2.

Press not a falling man too far; 'tis virtue: His faults lie open to the laws; let them, Not you, correct him.— H. VIII. iii. 2

Well, believe this; No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe, Become them with one half so good a grace, As mercy does.— M. M. ii. 2

Lawful mercy is Nothing akin to foul redemption.— M. M. ii. 4

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.— M. V. iv. l.

Mercy is not itself that oft looks so; Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.— M. M. ii. 1.

You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy; For your own reasons turn into your bosoms, As dogs upon their masters, worrying them.— H. V. ii. 2.