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'The Tempest' Quotes

Shakespeare's Famous Fantastical Play - Prospero and all...

By , About.com Guide

Here are more quotes from The Tempest, by William Shakespeare.
  • "Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
    Will him about mine ears; and sometime voices,
    That if I then had waked after long sleep,
    Will make me sleep again, and then in dreaming
    The clouds methought would open and show riches
    Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
    I cried to dream again."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 3.2

  • "A living drollery! Now I will believe
    that there are unicorns; that in Arabia
    There is one tree, the phoenix' throne, one phoenix
    At this hour reigning there."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 3.3

  • "are worse than devils."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 3.3

  • "You are three men of sin, whom destiny,
    That hath to instrument this lower world
    And what is in't, the never-surfeited sea
    Hath caused to belch up you, and on this island
    Where man doth not inhabit-you 'mongst men
    Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad"
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 3.3

  • "All three of them are desperate: their great guilt,
    like poison given to work a great time after,
    Now 'gins to bite their spirits. I do beseech you
    That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly,
    And hinder them from what this ecstasy
    May now provoke them to."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 3.3

  • "All thy vexations
    Were but my trials of thy love, and thou
    Hast strangely stood the test. Here, afore heaven
    I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand,
    Do not smile at me that I boast of her,
    For thou shalt find that she will outstrip all praise
    And make it halt behind her."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 4.1

  • "Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple
    Some vanity of mine art."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 4.1

  • "a contract of true love to celebrate"
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 4.1

  • "How does my bounteous sister? Go with me
    To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be,
    And honoured in their issue."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 4.1

  • "Let me live here forever
    So rare a wondered father and wife
    Makes this place a paradise."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 4.1

  • "This is strange. Your father's in some passion
    That works him strangely."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 4.1

  • "Never till this day
    Saw I him so touched with anger, so distempered."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 4.1

  • "These our actors,
    As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
    Are melted into air, into thin air,
    And, like the baseless fabric of vision,
    The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
    The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
    Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
    And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
    Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
    As dreams are made on, and our little life
    Is rounded with sleep."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 4.1

  • "A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
    Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,
    Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost
    And as with age his body uglier grows,
    So his mind cankers. I will plague them all,
    Even to roaring."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 4.1

  • "There is not only disgrace and dishonor in that,
    monster, but an infinite loss."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 4.1

  • "I will have none on't. We shall lose our time
    And all be turned to barnacles, or to apes
    With foreheads villainous low."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 4.1

  • "If you now beheld them, your affections
    Would become tender."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 5.1

  • "Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th' quick,
    Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury
    Do I take part. The rarer action is
    In virtue than in vengeance."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 5.1

  • "Behold, sir King,
    The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero"
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 5.1

  • "I fear a madness held me. This must crave,
    An if this be at all, a most strange story.
    Thy dukedom I resign, and do entreat
    Thou pardon me my wrongs. But how should Prospero
    Be living, and be here?"
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 5.1

  • "A daughter?
    O heavens, that they were living both in Naples,
    The King and Queen there! That they were, I wish
    My self were mudded in that oozy bed
    Where my son lies. When did you lose your daughter?"
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 5.1

  • "O wonder!
    How many goodly creatures are there here!
    How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
    That has such people in't!"
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 5.1

  • "Was Milan thrust from Milan that his issue
    Should become kings of Naples?"
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 5.1

  • "O look, sir, look, here is more of us!
    I prophesied if a gallows were on land
    This fellow could not drown.
    To Boatswain Now, blasphemy,
    That swear'st grace o'erboard, not an oath on the shore?
    Hast thou no mouth by land? What is the news?"
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 5.1

  • "Sir, my liege,
    Do not infest your mind with beating on
    The strangeness of this business. At picked leisure,
    Which shall be shortly single, I'll resolve you,
    Which to you shall seem probable, of every
    These happened accidents; till then, be cheerful
    And think of each thing well."
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 5.1

  • "Ay, that I will; and I'll be wise hereafter,
    And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass
    Was I to take this drunkard for a god,
    And worship this dull fool!"
    - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 5.1

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