Midsummer Quotes

• Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by insects. Almost every shrub and tree has its gall, oftentimes esteemed its chief ornament and hardly to be distinguished from the fruit. If misery loves company, misery has company enough. Now, at midsummer, find me a perfect leaf or fruit.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Rivers, Perfect, Tree

  Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.56, Courier Corporation

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• Too quick despairer, wherefore wilt thou go? Soon will the high Midsummer pomps come on, Soon will the musk carnations break and swell.

  Matthew Arnold

  Break, Musk, Carnations

  'Thyrsis' (1866) l. 61

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• As full of spirit as the month of May, and as gorgeous as the sun in Midsummer.

  William Shakespeare

  Horse, May, Months

  William Shakespeare, Joseph Dennie, Isaac Reed, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens (1806). “The plays of William Shakespeare: With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators”, p.298

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• The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.

  William Shakespeare

  Dream, Halloween, Heart

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 4, sc. 1, l. [218]

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• I sat upon a promontory,
  And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back,
  Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
  That the rude sea grew civil at her song;
  And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
  To hear the sea-maid's music.

  William Shakespeare

  Song, Stars, Sea

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 2, sc. 1, l. 149

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• A lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing.

  William Shakespeare

  Lions, Summer Nights, Dreaming At Night

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 3, sc. 1, l. [32]

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• I loved doing Shakespeare. My two favorite roles, in fact, have been Viola in Twelfth Night and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

  Blythe Danner

  Dream, Night, Two

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• To show our simple skill, That is the true beginning of our end.

  William Shakespeare

  Simple, Skills, Ends

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 5, sc. 1, l. [108]

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• To you your father should be as a god.

  William Shakespeare

  Father, Should, Theseus

  1595 Theseus to Hermia. A Midsummer Night's Dream, act1, sc.1, l.47.

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• So we grew together like to a double cherry, seeming parted, but yet an union in partition, two lovely berries molded on one stem.

  William Shakespeare

  Best Friend, Cute Friendship, Sisterhood

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 3, sc. 2, l. 208

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• O, teach me how you look, and with what art You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart."-Helena

  William Shakespeare

  Art, Looks, Teach

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• Up and down, up and down I will lead them up and down I am feared in field in town Goblin, lead them up and down

  William Shakespeare

  Fields, Towns, Goblin

  William Shakespeare (2013). “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, p.121, Callisto Media Inc

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• Four days will quickly steep themselves in nights; Four nights will quickly dream away the time; And then the moon, like to a silver bow new bent in heaven, shall behold the night of our solemnities.

  William Shakespeare

  Dream, Moon, Night

  William Shakespeare, Phill Evans (2009). “A Midsummer Night's Dream: In Full Colour, Cartoon, Illustrated Format”, p.1, Shakespeare Comic Books

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• I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
  To die upon the hand I love so well

  William Shakespeare

  Love, Hands, Heaven

  William Shakespeare, Trevor R. Griffiths (1996). “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, p.131, Cambridge University Press

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• And therefore is love said to be a child, Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd

  William Shakespeare

  Children, Love You, Choices

  William Shakespeare (1833). “The plays and poems of William Shakspeare”, p.128

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• Things base and vile, holding no quantity, love can transpose to form and dignity

  William Shakespeare

  Love, Dignity, Cupid

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 1, sc. 1, l. 226

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• One sees more devils than vast hell can hold

  William Shakespeare

  Halloween, Devil, Hell

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 5, sc. 1, l. 7

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• Never anything can be amiss, when simpleness and duty tender it.

  William Shakespeare

  Simplicity, Duty, Mid Summer Nights Dream

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 5, sc. 1, l. 82

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• Quote: What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?

  William Shakespeare

  Angel, Bed, Mid Summer Nights Dream

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 3, sc. 1, l. [131]

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• Things base and vile, holding no quantity, Love can transpose to form and dignity. Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste; Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.

  William Shakespeare

  Dream, Eye, Wings

  William Shakespeare (1833). “The plays and poems of William Shakspeare”, p.128

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• The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
  Doth glance from heaven to earth,
  From earth to heaven.

  William Shakespeare

  Eye, Heaven, Rolling

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 5, sc. 1, l. 7

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• Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: It fell upon a little western flower, Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound, And maidens call it love-in-idleness.

  William Shakespeare

  Flower, Purple, White

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 2, sc. 1, l. 161

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• The moon, like to a silver bow new bent in heaven.

  William Shakespeare

  Moon, Heaven, Bows

  William Shakespeare, Phill Evans (2009). “A Midsummer Night's Dream: In Full Colour, Cartoon, Illustrated Format”, p.1, Shakespeare Comic Books

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• I awoke in the Midsummer not-to-call night, in the white and the
  walk of the morning

  Gerard Manley Hopkins

  Morning, Night, White

  Gerard Manley Hopkins (2009). “Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins”, p.124, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to Earth, from Earth to heaven; and as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shape, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name; such tricks hath strong imagination.

  William Shakespeare

  Strong, Eye, Science

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 5, sc. 1, l. 7

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