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
Look to her, Moor, if thou has eyes to see. She has deceived her father, and may thee.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that one should be cautious in trusting others, especially in matters of love and relationships.
In this quote from Shakespeare's Othello, the speaker warns Othello about Desdemona's potential deceit, citing her previous trickery with her father. It underscores a theme of mistrust and betrayal in relationships and serves as a cautionary reminder that appearances can be deceptive, particularly in emotional ties.
In practice
During a discussion on trust in relationships, one might quote this to illustrate the potential for deception.
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).
Love bears it out even to the edge of doom.
Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.
Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it; the one brings fuel, the other blows it till it burns clear.
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults.
"I hate you." My sister said it different than she said it to my dad. She meant it with me.She really did. "I love you," was all I could say in return. "You're a freak, you know that? Everyone says so. They always have." "I'm trying not to be.β Then, I turned around and walked to my room and closed my door and put my head under my pillow and let the quiet put things where they are supposed to be.
Married people dont look like they have bedrooms on their minds when they look at each other. In this world, either you're virtuous or you enjoy yourself. Not both...Not both.
Passion is the quickest to develop, and the quickest to fade. Intimacy develops more slowly, and commitment more gradually still.
My husband is an opposition MP. Our political alliance may have fallen through, but our matrimonial alliance is intact.
Do you like me?β No answer. Silence bounced, fell off his tongue and sat between us and clogged my throat. It slaughtered my trust. It tore cigarettes out of my mouth. We exchanged blind words, and I did not cry, I did not beg, but blackness filled my ears, blackness lunged in my heart, and something that had been good, a sort of kindly oxygen, turned into a gas oven.
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