Quotes from King Henry IV, Part 1

“I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humour of your idleness.
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wondered at
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they seldom come, they wished-for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
So, when this loose behaviour I throw off
And pay the debt I never promisèd,
By how much better than my word I am,
By so much shall I falsify men’s hopes;
And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glitt’ring o’er my fault,
Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
I’ll so offend to make offence a skill,
Redeeming time when men think least I will.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“If all the year were playing holidays; To sport would be as tedious as to work.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,
To share with me in glory any more:
Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere;”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“Glendower: I can call the spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come, when you do call for them?”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“O, while you live, tell truth, and shame the Devil!”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“No, my good lord, banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins, but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant, being as he is, old Jack Falstaff, banish not him thy Harry's company, banish not him thy Harry's company. Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“Were't not for laughing, I should pity him.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“Why, thou knowest I am as valiant as Hercules, but beware instinct. The lion will not touch the true prince. Instinct is a great matter. I was a coward on instinct.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“the time of life is short;
To spend that shortness basely were too long.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“Before, I loved thee as a brother, John,
But now, I do respect thee as my soul.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“I am not yet of Percy's mind, the Hotspur of the North; he that kills me some six or seven dozen of Scots as a breakfast, washes his hands, and says to his wife, 'Fie upon this quiet life! I want work.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“Unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of leaping-houses, and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flame-colored taffeta, I see no reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand the time of the day.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“What is in that word "honor"? What is that "honor"? Air. A trim reckoning. Who hath it? He that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. 'Tis insensible, then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore, I'll none of it. Honor is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“How now, my sweet creature of bombast! How long is't ago, Jack, since thou saw'st thien own knee?”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“Hark, how hard he fetches breath.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“Homo is a common name to all men.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“though I be but the prince of Wales, yet I am king of courtesy”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk! When that this body did contain a spirit a kingdom for it was to small a bound. But now two paces of the vilest earth are room enough”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that are squires of the night’s body be called thieves of the day’s beauty. Let us be Diana’s foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon, and let men say we be men of good government, being governed, as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“There is not such a word
Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“O monstrous! eleven buckram men grown out of two!”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“I’ll be no longer guilty of this sin; this sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horseback-breaker, this huge hill of flesh,—”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“The better part of valour, is discretion.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“He made a blushing cital of himself,
And chid his truant youth with such a grace
As if he mastered there a double sprite
Of teaching and of learning instantly.
There did he pause: but let me tell the world:
If he outlive the envy of this day,
England did never owe so sweet a hope,
So much misconstrued in his wantonness.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

“By being seldom seen, I could not stir,
But, like a comet, I was wondered at...
He was but as the cuckoo is in June,
Heard, not regarded--seen, but with such eyes,
As, sick and blunted with community,
Afford no extraordinary gaze.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from King Henry IV, Part 1

About the author

Popular quotes

“The religious impulse can be very dangerous. It damages, sometimes permanently.”
― Anthony Burgess, quote from Earthly Powers

“Opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one and everyone thinks everyone else's stinks.”
― Simone Elkeles, quote from How to Ruin a Summer Vacation

“The world is a great mart, my Holly, where all things are for sale to whom who bids the highest in the currency of our desires.”
― H. Rider Haggard, quote from She

“She wished to sit down quietly and wait for her death, but not until she had cut the throats of her man and that girl who were laughing and kissing under the cornstalks.”
― Katherine Anne Porter, quote from The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter

“It's like coming home," said Webster and he wasn't talking to the dog. "It's like you've been away for a long, long time and then you come home again. And it's so long you don't recognize the place. Don't know the furniture, don't recognize the floor plan. But you know by the feel of it that it's an old familiar place and you are glad you came."

"I like it here," said. Ebenezer and he meant Webster's lap, but the man misunderstood.

"Of course, you do," he said. "It's your home as well as mine. More your home, in fact, for you stayed here and took care of it while I forgot about it.”
― Clifford D. Simak, quote from City

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.