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
So, you are very welcome to our house. It must appear in other ways than words, Therefore, I scant this breathing courtesy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the nature of hospitality, suggesting that true welcome goes beyond mere words.
In this quote, Shakespeare emphasizes the importance of actions over words when it comes to hospitality. He implies that a genuine welcome is best expressed through gestures and behavior, which convey sincerity and warmth more effectively than verbal invitations alone. The quote invites reflection on how we receive others and the deeper meanings of kindness and courtesy in human interactions.
Themes
HospitalityWelcomeCourtesyActionsWords
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of genuine hospitality in community gatherings.
More from William Shakespeare
All quotes βLove bears it out even to the edge of doom.
William ShakespeareRead
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!
William ShakespeareRead
Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
William ShakespeareRead
Similar quotes
The more I see of democracy the more I dislike it. It just brings everything down to the mere vulgar level of wages and prices, electric light and water closets, and nothing else.
D. H. LawrenceRead
The General was essentially a man of peace, except in his domestic life.
Oscar WildeRead
It is because God is infinitely great and good that his glory is the end of all things; and his good pleasure the highest reason for whatever comes to pass. What is man that he should contend with God, or presume that his interests rather than God's glory should be made the final end?
Charles HodgeRead
As we are, so we associate. The good, by affinity, seek the good; the vile, by affinity, the vile. Thus of their own volition, souls proceed into Heaven, into Hell.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
Time makes more converts than reason.
Thomas PaineRead
Necessity is the most powerful divinity the world knows β it is the result of physical forces set in operation by ethical forces.
Jose RizalRead