Timon of Athens Famous Quotes

I am Misanthropos, and hate mankind.

Timon to Apemantus in Act 4, Scene 3, living alone in the woods — the Greek word 'misanthropos' means man-hater, and Timon has adopted it as a proper name, or title. He has become the idea he embodies.

Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold? No, gods, I am no idle votarist.

Timon in Act 4, Scene 3, discovering gold while digging for roots — the man who gave it all away and was ruined by its loss now finds it again and immediately grasps what it means. The question is rhetorical; he knows exactly what he has found.

Thou visible god, That solder'st close impossibilities, And makest them kiss!

Timon addressing gold in Act 4, Scene 3, describing its power to unite incompatible things — the 'visible god' has replaced the invisible one for everyone in Athens, and Timon is not wrong about the substitution.

This yellow slave Will knit and break religions, bless the accursed, Make the hoar leprosy adored.

Timon continuing his address to gold in Act 4, Scene 3 — the speech anticipates Marx's description of money as capable of inverting all values. Shakespeare's Timon arrives at political economy through personal ruin.

The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast sea: the moon's an arrant thief.

Timon to Apemantus in Act 4, Scene 3, arguing that theft and predation are the universal law — the sun steals from the sea, the moon from the sun, the sea from rivers. His hatred of mankind fits a cosmos that runs on taking.

I am sick of this false world, and will love nought But even the mere necessities upon 't.

Timon in Act 4, Scene 3, reducing his wants to survival alone — the man who gave elaborate banquets and covered his guests with gold now claims to love only necessities. The transformation is total and the play takes it at face value.

Here's that which is too weak to be a sinner, honest water, which ne'er left man i' the mire.

Timon at his banquet in Act 1, Scene 2, making a speech about water as the only honest drink — the irony is that he is surrounded by men who are about to fail him comprehensively. His praise of water is also a mild satire on wine.

We have seen better days.

Flavius the faithful steward in Act 4, Scene 2, dividing his last coins among Timon's abandoned servants — four words that have passed into common use, here delivered in their most literal sense.

Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.

A senator in Act 3, Scene 5, arguing for the execution of Alcibiades's friend — the claim is that lenience encourages wrongdoing. The Athenian senate's hardness with mercy is the other face of the city's hardness with Timon.

This is in thee a nature but infected; A poor unmanly melancholy sprung From change of fortune.

Apemantus to Timon in Act 4, Scene 3, diagnosing Timon's misanthropy as a reaction rather than a philosophy — Apemantus hated mankind before his money ran out, which he thinks makes him the more genuine misanthrope.

Men report Thou dost affect my manners, and dost use them.

Apemantus to Timon in Act 4, Scene 3 — he is accusing Timon of copying his philosophical cynicism, which Apemantus considers his own. The quarrel between two misanthropes about who is the true misanthrope is one of the play's most bitter jokes.

O you gods, what a number of men eat Timon, and he sees 'em not!

Flavius aside at Timon's banquet in Act 1, Scene 2, watching the guests devour Timon's generosity while he remains oblivious — the verb 'eat' works literally and metaphorically. The play puts its conclusion in a servant's mouth at the start.

It almost turns my dangerous nature mild.

Timon in Act 4, Scene 3, briefly softened by some sight of human misery — the word 'almost' carries the whole play. His hatred is so total that 'almost' is the maximum concession he can make.

Destruction fang mankind! Earth, yield me roots!

Timon in Act 4, Scene 3, digging for roots in the earth — he has replaced extravagant banquets with the barest survival food. The curse on mankind and the request to the earth are the two poles of his new existence.

Timon hath made his everlasting mansion Upon the beached verge of the salt flood.

A senator reporting Timon's death in Act 5, Scene 2 — 'everlasting mansion' is his tomb on the shore. The sea he chose as his burial ground is the same sea he described as robbed by the sun: he ends at the edge of his own metaphors.