As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have; but, in their stead, / Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, / Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not" (5.3.25-28).
William ShakespeareRead
He makes a July's day short as December.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that someone has the power to make even the most joyous times feel fleeting.
In this quote from Shakespeare, the speaker reflects on the bittersweet nature of love, indicating that the presence of a beloved can transform a day of joy into one of melancholy simply due to their absence. It highlights how deep emotions can distort our perception of time, rendering even the longest days feel short when shadowed by longing or sorrow.
Themes
LoveTimeEmotionAbsenceLonging
In practice
Example use cases
During a wedding toast to express how love can make time seem to fly.
More from William Shakespeare
All quotes βLove bears it out even to the edge of doom.
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Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.
William ShakespeareRead
Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it; the one brings fuel, the other blows it till it burns clear.
William ShakespeareRead
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
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Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
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Similar quotes
I long for You so much_x000D_ _x000D_ I follow barefoot Your frozen tracks_x000D_ _x000D_ That are high in the mountains_x000D_ _x000D_ That I know are years old._x000D_ _x000D_ I long for You so much_x000D_ _x000D_ I have even begun to travel_x000D_ _x000D_ Where I have never been before.
HafezRead
I think you're a wonder. You're beautiful. You're mature. You are, I admit, vastly more experienced than I am. That's what threw me. I was thrown. Forgive me.
Philip RothRead
An eye is meant to see things. The soul is here for its own joy. A head has one use: For loving a true love. Feet: To chase after. Love is for vanishing into the sky. The mind, for learning what men have done and tried to do. Mysteries are not to be solved: The eye goes blind when it only wants to see why. A lover is always accused of something. But when he finds his love, whatever was lost in the looking comes back completely changed.
RumiRead
People who have babies tell me I will know a love that is beyond anything I can imagine, and a joy that is indescribable. Love and joy? That sounds horrifying. I have no way of knowing whether I can handle either of those. I'm much better with need and fear. They are what ground me.
Marc MaronRead
Love alone is the only reasonable activity or pursuit of humankind....Fo r Love not only annihilates our fear of meaninglessness but empowers us to seek the happiness of others. And this indeed is our greatest happiness.
Leo TolstoyRead
People who are not in love fail to understand how an intelligent man can suffer because of a very ordinary woman. This is like being surprised that anyone should be stricken with cholera because of a creature so insignificant as the common bacillus.
Marcel ProustRead