The most famous quotes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream are nearly all about love and imagination, and many of the wisest of them belong to the character the play treats worst, Helena.
This guide collects the play’s best-known lines act by act, with who says each one, where it comes from, and what it means. For the plot and characters, see our full guide to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and for the ideas behind the lines, see our guide to its themes.
At a Glance
Here are the five lines from A Midsummer Night’s Dream that everyone knows.
Quotes from Act 1
The opening act sets up the lovers’ problem and introduces the craftsmen.
“Hippolyta, I Woo’d Thee with My Sword”
Theseus, Act 1, scene 1: “Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword, / And won thy love, doing thee injuries; / But I will wed thee in another key.” Theseus conquered the Amazon queen in battle, and now promises a wedding full of celebration instead. The line quietly reminds the audience that this royal love story began in war.
“The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth”
Lysander, Act 1, scene 1, comforting Hermia after Theseus orders her to obey her father. In everything he has ever read or heard, he says, true lovers have met obstacles, whether a difference of rank, a difference of age, or the choice of family and friends. It is the play’s most famous line, and the rest of the night proves it an understatement.
“O Hell! To Choose Love by Another’s Eye!”
Hermia, Act 1, scene 1, completing Lysander’s list of love’s obstacles. The worst of all, she says, is having to love the person someone else has chosen for you, which is exactly what her father demands.
“Love Looks Not with the Eyes, but with the Mind”
Helena, Act 1, scene 1: “Things base and vile, holding no quantity, / Love can transpose to form and dignity: / Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; / And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind.” Love does not see what is really there; it can make worthless things seem beautiful. That is why Cupid is painted with a blindfold, and why Demetrius cannot see that Helena is as fair as Hermia.
“The Rest I’d Give to Be to You Translated”
Helena, Act 1, scene 1, to Hermia: “Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, / The rest I’d give to be to you translated.” If she owned the world, she would give all of it, except Demetrius, to be transformed into her friend, since Hermia is the one Demetrius loves.
“I Will Roar You as Gently as Any Sucking Dove”
Bottom, Act 1, scene 2. Having asked to play the Lion as well as Pyramus, “Let me play the lion too,” he is told his roar would frighten the ladies. So he promises to roar as gently as a baby dove, which rather defeats the point of a lion. The line sums up Bottom: endlessly confident and slightly confused.
Quotes from Act 2
In the wood, the fairies appear, and the magic begins.
“I Am That Merry Wanderer of the Night”
Puck, Act 2, scene 1, introducing himself to a fairy who recognizes him as Robin Goodfellow. He goes on to boast of his pranks: neighing like a young mare to fool a horse, and hiding in an old woman’s drink so she spills it.
“Ill Met by Moonlight, Proud Titania”
Oberon, Act 2, scene 1, his first words to his queen. It is an unlucky meeting, and he blames her pride. Titania answers in kind, “What, jealous Oberon!”, and the quarrel that has upset the seasons is on.
“I’ll Put a Girdle Round About the Earth in Forty Minutes”
Puck, Act 2, scene 1, when Oberon sends him to fetch the magic flower. A girdle is a belt: he will circle the whole earth in forty minutes. It is a playful boast of fairy speed.
“I Am Your Spaniel”
Helena, Act 2, scene 1, to Demetrius, who has just told her he does not love her: “I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, / The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.” She will accept any treatment, like a loyal dog, if only he will let her follow him. It is one of the most painful declarations of love in Shakespeare.
“We Cannot Fight for Love, as Men May Do”
Helena, Act 2, scene 1: “We cannot fight for love, as men may do; / We should be woo’d and were not made to woo.” Chasing Demetrius through the wood, she knows she is breaking the rules of her world, which let men pursue women but not the other way around.
“I Know a Bank Where the Wild Thyme Blows”
Oberon, Act 2, scene 1: “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, / Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows.” He describes the flowery place where Titania sleeps, where he means to drop the flower’s juice in her eyes. The beauty of the verse sits oddly beside the spiteful trick he is planning.
Quotes from Act 3
The act of Bottom’s transformation and the lovers’ great quarrel.
“Bless Thee, Bottom! Bless Thee! Thou Art Translated”
Quince, Act 3, scene 1, seeing Bottom with his new ass’s head before running away. “Translated” here means transformed. Bottom, who cannot see his own head, decides his friends are trying “to make an ass of me.”
“Reason and Love Keep Little Company Together Now-a-Days”
Bottom, Act 3, scene 1, when Titania declares her love for him. He points out that she has little reason to love him, “and yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days.” The play’s most foolish character states its central idea more plainly than anyone else.
“Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be!”
Puck, Act 3, scene 2, to Oberon, as the enchanted lovers approach. To a fairy, human passion looks ridiculous. The joke is that Puck himself caused much of the foolishness he laughs at.
“Like to a Double Cherry”
Helena, Act 3, scene 2, reminding Hermia of their childhood friendship: “So we grew together, / Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, / But yet an union in partition; / Two lovely berries moulded on one stem.” Two cherries on one stem look separate but are really one. She cannot believe Hermia would betray that bond.
“Though She Be but Little, She Is Fierce”
Helena, Act 3, scene 2, about Hermia, begging the men to protect her: “O, when she’s angry, she is keen and shrewd! / She was a vixen when she went to school; / And though she be but little, she is fierce.” The line is now used as praise, often for small but determined women, though Helena meant it as a warning.
“Jack Shall Have Jill”
Puck, Act 3, scene 2, as he undoes the spell on Lysander: “Jack shall have Jill; / Nought shall go ill; / The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.” The old country sayings promise that every lover will end up with the right partner. They close the night’s confusion.
Quotes from Act 4
Morning, and the waking from the dream.
“Methought I Was Enamour’d of an Ass”
Titania, Act 4, scene 1, released from the spell: “My Oberon! what visions have I seen! / Methought I was enamour’d of an ass.” She remembers her night with Bottom only as a strange vision. Oberon simply points to the sleeping weaver: “There lies your love.”
“I Have Had a Most Rare Vision”
Bottom, Act 4, scene 1, waking alone in the wood: “I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was.” Trying to describe it, he muddles every sense: “The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen.” He resolves to have it made into a ballad called “Bottom’s Dream,” “because it hath no bottom.”
Quotes from Act 5
The wedding night, the craftsmen’s play, and Puck’s farewell.
“The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet”
Theseus, Act 5, scene 1: “The lunatic, the lover and the poet / Are of imagination all compact.” Madmen, lovers, and poets are made entirely of imagination, and all three see things that are not there. He is dismissing the lovers’ story of their night as fantasy.
“A Local Habitation and a Name”
Theseus, in the same speech: “the poet’s pen / Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing / A local habitation and a name.” The poet takes things that exist only in the imagination and gives them a place and an identity. Theseus means it skeptically, but it is a perfect description of what Shakespeare has done with his fairies.
“The Best in This Kind Are but Shadows”
Theseus, Act 5, scene 1, when Hippolyta calls the craftsmen’s play “the silliest stuff that ever I heard”: “The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.” Even the best play is only a shadow of reality, and any play works if the audience brings its imagination.
“If We Shadows Have Offended”
Puck, the epilogue: “If we shadows have offended, / Think but this, and all is mended, / That you have but slumber’d here / While these visions did appear.” Picking up Theseus’s word “shadows,” he asks the audience to forgive anything they disliked by treating the whole play as a dream.
A Closer Reading: The Unloved Woman Speaks for Love
Count the lines in this collection, and one speaker stands out. Of all the characters, it is Helena, the woman nobody loves for most of the play, who says the most memorable things about love.
She explains love’s blindness: “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.” She names the unfairness of its rules: “We cannot fight for love, as men may do.” She describes the humiliation of loving without return: “I am your spaniel.” She remembers a love that is not romantic at all, the double cherry of her friendship with Hermia. She even gives the play its most famous description of a character, “though she be but little, she is fierce,” and she says it about the rival she envies.
The characters who are loved speak differently. Lysander has the famous line about true love’s rough course, but it is a line about stories he has read. Hermia, loved by both men, mostly defends herself. It is Helena, standing outside love and looking in, who sees it most clearly. She knows exactly how foolish she is being, and she cannot stop.
That may be why the play treats her so strangely at its climax. When both men finally declare their love for her, she cannot believe it, and insists they are mocking her. The woman who understood love best is the last to accept that she has it, and she is right to be suspicious: it is the work of a magic flower. Our guide to the A Midsummer Night’s Dream characters follows Helena and the other lovers through the night.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about quotes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, answered briefly.
What Is the Most Famous Quote from A Midsummer Night’s Dream?
“The course of true love never did run smooth,” spoken by Lysander in Act 1, scene 1. “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” and “Though she be but little, she is fierce” are close behind.
Who Says “Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be”?
Puck, in Act 3, scene 2, as he and Oberon watch the enchanted lovers approach.
Who Says “Though She Be but Little, She Is Fierce”?
Helena, about Hermia, in Act 3, scene 2. It is not a compliment in context: Helena is warning the men that Hermia might attack her.
What Does “Love Looks Not with the Eyes, but with the Mind” Mean?
That love is not guided by what is really in front of it, but by the lover’s imagination. Helena says it to explain why Demetrius prefers Hermia, though Helena is thought just as beautiful.
Who Says “If We Shadows Have Offended”?
Puck, in the epilogue at the very end of the play, asking the audience to forgive any faults by treating the play as a dream.
Related Reading
Three pages that take A Midsummer Night’s Dream further.