Here is a selection of quotes from Henry VIII, a play written by Shakespeare and John Fletcher.

Brewster Mason as Cardinal Wolsey, wearing a bright red cap and a brown cape, talking to Peggy Ashcroft who plays Queen Katherine
Cardinal Wolsey (Brewster Mason) begging Queen Katherine (Peggy Ashcroft) to grant the King his divorce in Trevor Nunn's 1970 production of Henry VIII.
Photo by Reg Wilson © RSC Browse and license our images

Order gave each thing view.
(Norfolk, Act 1 Scene 1)

Be to yourself
As you would to your friend.
(Norfolk, Act 1 Scene 1)

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself.
(Norfolk, Act 1 Scene 1)

'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
That virtue must go through.
(Cardinal Wolsey, Act 1 Scene 2)

The mirror of all courtesy.
(Second Gentleman, Act 2 Scene 1)

'Tis better to be lowly born,
And range with humble livers in content,
Than to be perked up in a glist’ring grief,
And wear a golden sorrow.
(Anne, Act 2 Scene 3)

Orpheus, with his lute made trees,
And the mountain tops that freeze,
Bow themselves when he did sing.
(Woman, Act 3 Scene 1)

I have touched the highest point of all my greatness,
And from that full meridian of my glory,
I haste now to my setting. I shall fall
Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
And no man see me more.
(Cardinal Wolsey, Act 3 Scene 2)

I feel within me
A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience.
(Cardinal Wolsey, Act 3 Scene 2)

A load would sink a navy: too much honour.
(Cardinal Wolsey, Act 3 Scene 2)

Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee:
Corruption wins not more than honesty.
(Cardinal Wolsey, Act 3 Scene 2)

Men’s evil manners live in brass, their virtues
We write in water.
(Griffith, Act 4 Scene 2)

Those about her
From her shall read the perfect ways of honour.
(Cranmer, Act 5 Scene 4)

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