Pericles, Prince of Tyre Famous Quotes

Great king, Few love to hear the sins they love to act.

Pericles to King Antiochus in Act 1, Scene 1, after solving the riddle that reveals incest — Antiochus does not want his secret known. The observation about self-deception is Pericles' first lesson and applies to almost everyone in the play.

Murder's as near to lust as flame to smoke.

Pericles in Act 1, Scene 1, after solving Antiochus's riddle — he reasons that a man who will commit incest will also commit murder to protect his secret. The logic explains why he must flee immediately.

Who makes the fairest show means most deceit.

Pericles in Act 1, Scene 4, distrusting appearances — the play reinforces this throughout: Antiochus, Cleon, Dionyza all deceive beneath fair surfaces. Marina, the most beautiful, is also the most genuinely virtuous.

See where she comes, apparell'd like the spring.

Pericles on first seeing Antiochus's daughter in Act 1, Scene 1 — the spring image invokes renewal and beauty before the riddle reveals the corruption underneath. Beauty and poison are paired from the play's first scene.

It hath been sung at festivals, On ember-eves and holy-ales; And lords and ladies in their lives Have read it for restoratives.

Gower the chorus in the Prologue to Act 1, introducing the story of Pericles as an ancient tale already known to audiences — the frame of the oral tradition makes everything that follows feel both familiar and once-removed.

Born in a tempest, when my mother died, This world to me is like a lasting storm, Whirring me from my friends.

Marina in Act 4, Scene 1, just before being sold to a brothel — born at sea in a storm that killed her mother, she describes her entire life in terms of that originating weather. It is her most self-aware speech.

Yet thou dost look Like Patience gazing on kings' graves, and smiling Extremity out of act.

Lysimachus to Helicanus in Act 5, Scene 1, describing Marina's bearing — 'Patience gazing on kings' graves' is the image of a virtue so settled that even death cannot disturb it. He has just tried to buy Marina's services.

You may; But bootless is your sight: he will not speak To any.

Helicanus to Lysimachus in Act 5, Scene 1, on whether Pericles can be visited — 'bootless' means useless, and 'he will not speak to any' describes the silence Pericles has kept since believing Marina dead. Marina breaks it.

O, no tears, Lychorida, no tears: Look to your little mistress, on whose grace You may depend hereafter.

Pericles in Act 3, Scene 3, after Thaisa's apparent death at sea — he turns immediately from grief to the infant Marina, redirecting himself and the nurse toward the future. It is the most stoic line he has in the play.

Patience, good sir; do not assist the storm.

Lychorida to Pericles in Act 3, Scene 1, during the storm at sea in which Thaisa dies in childbirth — urging him not to rage against weather he cannot control. The word 'patience' recurs throughout the play.

Who starves the ears she feeds, and makes them hungry, The more she gives them speech.

Lysimachus describing Marina's speech in Act 5, Scene 1 — she speaks so well that listening creates appetite for more rather than satisfaction. The paradox of her eloquence is that it works against itself.