Shakespeare Quotes About Appearance and Reality

    22 quotes across 9 plays.

    No legacy is so rich as honesty.

    Widow·All's Well That Ends Well·Act 3, Scene 5

    I am a simple maid, and therein wealthiest, That I protest I simply am a maid.

    The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together:

    First Lord·All's Well That Ends Well·Act 4, Scene 3

    All the world's a stage, / And all the men and women merely players:

    Jaques·As You Like It·Act 2, Scene 7

    Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak.

    Rosalind·As You Like It·Act 3, Scene 2

    One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

    Hamlet·Hamlet·Act 1, Scene 5

    Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not 'seems.'

    Hamlet·Hamlet·Act 1, Scene 2

    Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye: I feel my heart new opened.

    Cardinal Wolsey·Henry VIII·Act 3, Scene 2

    Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness! This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms,

    Cardinal Wolsey·Henry VIII·Act 3, Scene 2

    Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues We write in water.

    Griffith·Henry VIII·Act 4, Scene 2

    Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye, Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues.

    Maria·Love's Labour's Lost·Act 2, Scene 1

    The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo.

    Armado·Love's Labour's Lost·Act 5, Scene 2

    Love's feeling is more soft and sensible Than are the tender horns of cockled snails.

    Berowne·Love's Labour's Lost·Act 4, Scene 3

    Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

    The Three Witches·Macbeth·Act 1, Scene 1

    Look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under 't.

    Lady Macbeth·Macbeth·Act 1, Scene 5

    I am not what I am.

    Iago·Othello·Act 1, Scene 1

    Men should be what they seem, / Or those that be not, would they might seem none!

    Iago·Othello·Act 3, Scene 3

    And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

    Richard III·Richard III·Act 1, Scene 3

    A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

    Richard III·Richard III·Act 5, Scene 4

    I shall despair. There is no creature loves me;

    Richard III·Richard III·Act 5, Scene 3

    All that glisters is not gold;

    Morocco·The Merchant of Venice·Act 2, Scene 7

    How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!