Othello Quotes

Quote 1: "Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
In following him, I follow but myself.
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so for my peculiar end:
For when my outward action demonstrates
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern, 'tis not long after,
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at. I am not what I am." Act 1, Scene 1

Quote 2: "Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds / By what you see them act. Are there not charms / By which the property of youth and maidenhood / May be abused?" Act 1, Scene 1

Quote 3: "And till she comes, as truly as to heave
I do confess the vices of my blood,
So justly to your grave ears I'll present
How I did thrive in this fair lady's love,
And she in mine." Act 1, Scene 3

Quote 4: "And noble signior,
If virtue no delighted beauty lack,
Your son-in-law is far more fair than black." Act 1, Scene 3

Quote 5: "I have it. It is engendered. Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light." Act 1, Scene 3

Quote 6: "He takes her by the palm. Ay, well said, whisper. With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon her, do. I will fetter you in your own courtship." Act 2, Scene 1

Quote 7: "I do suspect the lusty Moor
Has leaped into my seat: the thought whereof
Doe, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards,
And nothing can, or shall, content my soul
Till I am evened with him, wife for wife.
Or failing so, yet that I put the Moor
At least into a jealousy so strong
That judgment cannot cure." Act 2, Scene 1

Quote 8: "You will be shamed forever!" Act 2, Scene 3

Quote 9: "Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; often got without merit and lost without deserving. You have lost no reputation at all, unless you repute yourself such a loser. What, man! There are ways to recover the General again." Act 2, Scene 3

Quote 10: "I [he] never knew a Florentine more kind and honest." Act 3, Scene 1

Quote 11: "Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-eyed monster, which does mock
The meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in bliss
Who certain of his fate loves not his wronger;
But O, what damned minutes tells he over,
Who dotes yet doubts, suspects yet fondly loves!" Act 3, Scene 3

Quote 12: "O, curse of marriage!
That we can call these delicate creatures ours
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others' uses." Act 3, Scene 3

Quote 13: "The Moor already changes with my poison.
Dangerous conceits are in their natures poisons,
Which at the first are scarce found to distaste,
But, with a little act upon the blood,
Burn like the mines of sulphur." Act 3, Scene 3

Quote 14: "But jealous souls will not be answered so;
They are not ever jealous for the cause,
But jealous because they're jealous. It is a monster
Begotten upon itself, born on itself." Act 3, Scene 4

Quote 15: "Work on,
My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught,
And many worthy and chaste dames even thus,
All guiltless, meet reproach." Act 4, Scene 1

Quote 16: "Ay, let her rot and perish, and be damned tonight, for she shall not live! No, my heart is turned to stone: I strike it, and it hurts my hand." Act 4, Scene 1

Quote 17: "Most villainous knave,
Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow." Act 4, Scene 2

Quote 18: "But I do think it is their husbands' faults
If wives do fall. Say that they slack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps;
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
Or scant our former living out of spite -
Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
Their wives have sense like them; they see and smell,
And have their palates both for sweet and sour
As husbands have. What is it that they do,
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is. And does affection breed it?
I think it does. Is it frailty that thus errs?
It is so too. And have not we affections,
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well: else let them know
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so." Act 4, Scene 3

Quote 19: "This is the night
That either makes me, or undoes me quite." Act 5, Scene 1

Quote 20: "It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul:
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!
It is the cause. Yet I'll not shed her blood,
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
And smooth as monumental alabaster.
Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men.
Put out the light, and then put out the light." Act 5, Scene 2

Quote 21: "O cursed, cursed slave! Whip me, ye devils,
From the possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in winds! Roast me in sulphur!
Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!
O Desdemon! Dead Desdemon! Dead! O! O!" Act 5, Scene 2

Quote 22: "I kissed you, ere I killed you: no way but this,
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss." Act 5, Scene 2