Timon of Athens Quotes

Looking for Timon of Athens quote? Read our selection of the very best quotes from Timon of Athens, along with speaker, act and scene. Although many scholars belive Timon of Athen to be an unfinished play, Shakespeare still manages to bring the characters to life with memorable dialogue and some fantastic quotes.

Read on below for the most well known Timon of Athens quotes:

“The fire i’th’ flint
Shows not till it be struck”

Poet (Act 1, Scene 1)

“I am not of that feather to shake off
My friend when he must need me.”

Timon (Act 1, Scene 1)

“Here’s that which is too weak to be a sinner—
Honest water—which ne’er left man i’th’mire.”

Apemantus (Act 1, Scene 2)

“Like madness is the glory of this life.”

Apemantus (Act 1, Scene 2)

“Men shut their doors against a setting sun.”

Apemantus (Act 1, Scene 2)

“I wonder men dare trust themselves with men.”

Apemantus (Act 1, Scene 2)

“O, that men’s ears should be
To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!”

Apemantus (Act 1, Scene 2)

“Their blood is caked, ‘tis cold, it selfdom flows:
‘Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind.”

Timon (Act 2, Scene 2)

“I must not break my back to heal his finger.”

Senators (Act 2, Scene 2)

“Never mind
Was to be so unwise to be so kind.”

Flavius (Act 2, Scene 2)

“Ne’er speak or think
That Timon’s fortunes ‘mong his friends can sink.”

Timon (Act 2, Scene 2)

“Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise,
The breath is gone wherof this praise is made.
Feast-won, fast-lost; one cloud of winter showers,
These flies are couched.”

Flavius (Act 2, Scene 2)

“Has friendship such a faint and milky heart,
It turns in less than two nights?”

Timon (Act 3, Scene 1)

“Every man has his fault, and honesty is his.”

Lucullus (Act 3, Scene 1)

“Let molten coin be thy damnation,
Thou disease of a friend and not himself!”

Flaminius (Act 3, Scene 1)

“I am so much endeared to that lord; he’s ever sending.”

Lucius (Act 3, Scene 2)

“Now all are fled,
Save only the gods.”

Servants (Act 3, Scene 3)

“If ’twill not serve, ’tis not so base as you,
Gor you serve knaves.”

Flavius (Act 3, Scene 4)

“Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.”

First Senator (Act 3, Scene 6)

“Timon will to the woods, where he shall find
Th’unkindest beast more kinder than mankind.
The gods confound — hear me, you good gods all —
Th’Athenians both within and out that wall,
And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow
To the whole race of mankind, high and low! Amen.”

Timon (Act 4, Scene 1)

“O thou wall
That girdles in those wolves, dive in the earth
And fence not Athens!”

Timon (Act 4, Scene 1)

“Yet do our hearts wear Timon’s livery.”

Servants (Act 4, Scene 2)

“We have seen better days.”

Flavius (Act 4, scene 2)

“Strange, unusual blood,
When man’s worst sin is he does too much good!”

Flavius (Act 4, Scene 2)

“What is here? Gold?
Yellow, glittering precious gold? This yellow slave
Will knit and break religions; bless th’accursed,
Make the hoar leprosy adored, place thieves,
And give them title, knee, and approbation
With senators on the bench.”

Timon (Act 4, Scene 3)

“I am Misanthropos and hate mankind.
For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog,
That I might love thee something.”

Timon (Act 4, Scene 3)

“I do proclaim one honest man.
Mistake me not, but one;
No more, I pray, and he’s a steward.
How fain would I have hated all mankind,
And thou redeem’st thyself.
But all save thee I fell with curses.”

Timon (Act 4, Scene 3)

“The middle of humanity though never knewest, but the extremity of both ends.”

Apemantus (Act 4, Scene 3)

“The sun’s a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea. The moon’s an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.
The sea’s a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears. The earth’s a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a composture stol’n
From gen’ral excrement; each thing’s a thief.”

Timon (Act 4, Scene 3)

“Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate
With thy most operant poison!”

Timon (Act 4, Scene 3)

“What beast couldst thou be that were not subject to a beast?
And what a beast art thou already, that see’st not thy loss in transformation!”

Timon (Act 4 Scene 3)

“You are an alchemist, make gold of that.”

(Timon (Act 5 Scene 1)

“What a god’s gold
That he is worshiped in a baser temple
Than where swine feed!”

Timon (Act 5, Scene 1)

“Commend me to my loving countrymen.”

Timon (Act 5, Scene 1)

“Some beast read this; there does not live a man.”

Soldier (Act 5, Scene 3)

“‘Here lies a wretched corpse, of wretched soul bereft.
Seek not my name. A plague consume you wicked caitiffs left!
Here lie I, Timon, who alive all living men did hate:
Pass by and curse they fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.”

Alcibiades (Act 5, Scene 4)

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