William Shakespeare Quotes on Brothers (29 Quotes)


    Flesh and blood,
    You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,
    Expell'd remorse and nature, who, with Sebastian-
    Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong-
    Would here have kill'd your king, I do forgive thee,
    Unnatural though thou art.


    No, Leonato,
    I never tempted her with word too large,
    But, as a brother to his sister, show'd
    Bashful sincerity and comely love.

    Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
    Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
    Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
    Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
    Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,
    He hath not fail'd to pester us with message
    Importing the surrender of those lands
    Lost by his father, with all bands of law,
    To our most valiant brother.

    Your brother- no, no brother; yet the son-
    Yet not the son; I will not call him son
    Of him I was about to call his father-
    Hath heard your praises; and this night he means
    To burn the lodging where you use to lie,
    And you within it.


    If you do love my brother, hate not me;
    I am his brother, and I love him well.

    My youngest boy, and yet my eldest care,
    At eighteen years became inquisitive
    After his brother, and importun'd me
    That his attendant-so his case was like,
    Reft of his brother, but retain'd his name-
    Might bear him company in the quest of him;
    Whom whilst I laboured of a love to see,
    I hazarded the loss of whom I lov'd.

    We came into the world like brother and brother; And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.

    Learn, good soul,
    To think our former state a happy dream;
    From which awak'd, the truth of what we are
    Shows us but this: I am sworn brother, sweet,
    To grim Necessity; and he and
    Will keep a league till death.


    Clarence and Gloucester, love my lovely queen;
    And kiss your princely nephew, brothers both.

    I have no brother, I am like no brother;
    And this word 'love,' which greybeards call divine,
    Be resident in men like one another,
    And not in me!

    I protest-
    Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence,
    Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,
    Thy valour and thy heart- thou art a traitor;
    False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father;
    Conspirant 'gainst this high illustrious prince;
    And from th' extremest upward of thy head
    To the descent and dust beneath thy foot,
    A most toad-spotted traitor.


    But mark how heavily this befell to the poor gentlewoman:
    there she lost a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward
    her ever most kind and natural; with him the portion and sinew of
    her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, her combinate
    husband, this well-seeming Angelo.

    First, her father slain;
    Next, Your son gone, and he most violent author
    Of his own just remove; the people muddied,
    Thick and and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers
    For good Polonius' death, and we have done but greenly
    In hugger-mugger to inter him; Poor Ophelia
    Divided from herself and her fair-judgment,
    Without the which we are Pictures or mere beasts;
    Last, and as such containing as all these,
    Her brother is in secret come from France;
    And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
    Feeds on his wonder, keep, himself in clouds,
    With pestilent speeches of his father's death,
    Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,
    Will nothing stick Our person to arraign
    In ear and ear.

    Here's Agamemnon, an honest fellow
    enough, and one that loves quails, but he has not so much brain
    as ear-wax; and the goodly transformation of Jupiter there, his
    brother, the bull, the primitive statue and oblique memorial of
    cuckolds, a thrifty shoeing-horn in a chain, hanging at his
    brother's leg-to what form but that he is, should wit larded with
    malice, and malice forced with wit, turn him to?




    For forth he goes and visits all his host;
    Bids them good morrow with a modest smile,
    And calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen.

    So happy be the issue, brother England,
    Of this good day and of this gracious meeting
    As we are now glad to behold your eyes-
    Your eyes, which hitherto have home in them,
    Against the French that met them in their bent,
    The fatal balls of murdering basilisks;
    The venom of such looks, we fairly hope,
    Have lost their quality; and that this day
    Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.


    Thou lov'st me not; for, brother, if thou didst,
    Thy tears would wash this cold congealed blood
    That glues my lips and will not let me speak.

    For your part,
    To you our swords have leaden points, Mark Antony;
    Our arms in strength of malice, and our hearts
    Of brothers' temper, do receive you in
    With all kind love, good thoughts, and reverence.

    And lo where George of Clarence sweeps along,
    Of force enough to bid his brother battle;
    With whom an upright zeal to right prevails
    More than the nature of a brother's love.

    I and my brother are not known; yourself
    So out of thought, and thereto so o'ergrown,
    Cannot be questioned.

    If he be like your brother, for his sake
    Is he pardon'd; and for your lovely sake,
    Give me your hand and say you will be mine,
    He is my brother too.

    But, good my brother, do not, as some ungracious pastors do. Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven whilst like a puffed and reckless libertine himself the primrose path of dalliance treads and wrecks not his own.


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