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
You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;_x000D_ _x000D_ But yet you draw not iron, for my heart_x000D_ _x000D_ Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,_x000D_ _x000D_ And I shall have no power to follow you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the struggle between desire and emotional resilience in the face of a hard-hearted lover.
In this quote from Shakespeare, the speaker addresses their lover's ability to attract them despite their emotional distance. The metaphor of drawing iron contrasts the speaker's steadfast heart, symbolizing their reluctance to be drawn in by the lover's power. It highlights the tension between longing and self-control, illustrating the complexities of love where attraction may not lead to submission.
Themes
LoveAttractionResiliencePowerHeart
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a discussion about relationship dynamics in a literature class.
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
I need to feel strongly, to love and admire, just as desperately as I need to breathe.
Jean-Dominique BaubyRead
The loss of love is the loss of all rights, even though one had them all.
Albert CamusRead
But mostly I wondered why the head could move so swiftly while the heart dragged its feet. I still loved him. It felt like anything else permanent that has gone missing; a lost tooth, a severed leg. You might know better, but that doesnβt keep your tongue from poling at the hole in your gum, or your phantom limb from aching.
Jodi PicoultRead
Maybe there's a God above, As for me, all I've ever seemed to learn from love Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew you. Yeah but it's not a complaint that you hear tonight, It's not the laughter of someone who claims to have seen the light No it's a cold and it's a very lonely Hallelujah.
Leonard CohenRead
If I had no duties, and no reference to futurity, I would spend my life in driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman.
Samuel JohnsonRead
No specter assails us in more varied disguises than loneliness, and one of its most impenetrable masks is called love.
Arthur SchnitzlerRead