Important/Notable Lines from Shakespeare (Julius Caesar)

Let me have men about me that are fat, Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep a-nights. Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.

Caesar

I have seen tempests when the scolding winds Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen Th' ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds; But never till tonight, never till now, Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.

Casca

Forget not in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calphurnia, for our elders say The barren, touchèd in this holy chase, Shake off their sterile curse.

Caesar

Beware the ides of March.

Soothsayer

And it is very much lamented, Brutus, That you have no such mirrors as will turn Your hidden worthiness into your eye, That you might see your shadow.

Cassius

And this man Is now become a god, and Cassius is A wretched creature and must bend his body If Caesar carelessly but nod on him.

Cassius

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about To find ourselves dishonorable graves.

Cassius

Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Cassius

"Brutus" and "Caesar"—what should be in that "Caesar"? Why should that name be sounded more than yours? Write them together, yours is as fair a name; Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well; Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with 'em, "Brutus" will start a spirit as soon as "Caesar.

Cassius

Well, Brutus, thou art noble. Yet I see Thy honorable mettle may be wrought From that it is disposed.

Cassius

Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man Most like this dreadful night, That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars As doth the lion in the Capitol; A man no mightier than thyself or me In personal action, yet prodigious grown, And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.

Cassius

But life, being weary of these worldly bars, Never lacks power to dismiss itself. If I know this, know all the world besides, That part of tyranny that I do bear I can shake off at pleasure.

Cassius

Good Cinna, take this paper, And look you lay it in the Praetor's chair, Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this In at his window; set this up with wax Upon old Brutus' statue.

Cassius

Th' abuse of greatness is when it disjoins Remorse from power. And, to speak truth of Caesar, I have not known when his affections swayed More than his reason.

Brutus

And therefore think him as a serpent's egg, Which, hatched, would, as his kind, grow mischievous, And kill him in the shell.

Brutus

O conspiracy, Sham'st thou to show thy dang'rous brow by night, When evils are most free? O, then, by day Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough To mask thy monstrous visage?

Brutus

I think it is not meet Mark Antony, so well beloved of Caesar, Should outlive Caesar. We shall find of him A shrewd contriver; and, you know, his means, If he improve them, may well stretch so far As to annoy us all; which to prevent, Let Antony and Caesar fall together.

Cassius

Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius, To cut the head off and then hack the limbs, Like wrath in death and envy afterwards; For Antony is but a limb of Caesar.

Brutus

And, gentle friends, Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully. Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods, Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.

Brutus

If he be so resolved, I can o'ersway him, for he loves to hear That unicorns may be betrayed with trees, And bears with glasses, elephants with holes, Lions with toils, and men with flatterers.

Decius

No, my Brutus, You have some sick offense within your mind, Which by the right and virtue of my place I ought to know of.

Portia

And upon my knees I charm you, by my once commended beauty, By all your vows of love, and that great vow Which did incorporate and make us one, That you unfold to me, your self, your half, Why you are heavy, and what men tonight Have had resort to you;

Portia

Tell me your counsels; I will not disclose 'em. I have made strong proof of my constancy, Giving myself a voluntary wound Here, in the thigh. Can I bear that with patience, And not my husband's secrets? Caesar

Portia

Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.

Caesar

Danger knows full well That Caesar is more dangerous than he. We are two lions littered in one day, And I the elder and more terrible. And Caesar shall go forth.

Caesar

Your wisdom is consumed in confidence. Do not go forth today. Call it my fear That keeps you in the house, and not your own.

Calphurnia

She dreamt tonight she saw my statue, Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts, Did run pure blood; and many lusty Romans Came smiling and did bathe their hands in it. And these does she apply for warnings and portents And evils imminent, and on her knee Hath begged that I will stay at home today.

Caesar

Your statue spouting blood in many pipes, In which so many smiling Romans bathed, Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck Reviving blood, and that great men shall press For tinctures, stains, relics, and cognizance.

Decius

And know it now: the Senate have concluded To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar. If you shall send them word you will not come, Their minds may change.

Decius

Here will I stand till Caesar pass along, And as a suitor will I give him this. My heart laments that virtue cannot live Out of the teeth of emulation. If thou read this, O Caesar, thou mayest live; If not, the Fates with traitors do contrive.

Artemidorus

O constancy, be strong upon my side; Set a huge mountain 'tween my heart and tongue. I have a man's mind but a woman's might.

Portia

Ay me, how weak a thing The heart of woman is! O Brutus, The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise!

Portia