Othello Love Quotes

‘Tis the curse of service,
Preferment goes by letter and affection,
And not by old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself,
Whether I in any just term am affined
To love the Moor.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 1. Iago tells Roderigo that army promotions are decided on the basis of recommendation and favoritism, not by seniority or experience. Showing his jealousy, Iago believes that Cassio got the officer’s position he coveted because of his connections. He makes clear that he is not following Othello out of any loyalty or love for him.

It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
Were I the Moor I would not be Iago.
In following him, I follow but myself.
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so for my peculiar end.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 1. Iago shows his jealousy of Othello and his position in Venetian society as general of the army. He reveals how two-faced he is, admitting that he will follow Othello, not out of love or loyalty, but simply to serve his own purpose. Incensed that Cassio has been promoted over him by Othello, Iago acts as Othello’s friend so that he can take advantage of him when the opportunity arises.

Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains.
Yet, for necessity of present life,
I must show out a flag and sign of love,
Which is indeed but sign.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 1. Iago is quite open to Roderigo about his hatred of Othello, the black Moor hired by Venice as a general for its army. The play’s heinous and intriguing villain reveals his flair for deception. He plans to metaphorically display a “flag” of love for his boss Othello, in order to conceal his true feelings of loathing for him.

But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
I would not my unhoused free condition
Put into circumscription and confine
For the sea’s worth.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 2. After Iago tells Othello that Brabantio may try to divorce him and Desdemona, Othello declares his deep love for Brabantio’s daughter. In a metaphor Othello compares the value of his freedom as a single man and love for Desdemona to all the treasures of the sea. He would not have given up this freedom for the sea’s riches, except that he loves Desdemona, he says.

I will a round unvarnish’d tale deliver
Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms,
What conjuration and what mighty magic,
For such proceeding I am charged withal,
I won his daughter.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Othello is being ironic when announcing to the Duke and council that he will tell them the drugs, charms and powerful magic he used to win Desdemona’s love. He is saying that he used no witchcraft, as charged by Desdemona’s father, but they simply fell in love.

To fall in love with what she fear’d to look on!
It is a judgment maim’d and most imperfect
That will confess perfection so could err
Against all rules of nature, and must be driven
To find out practises of cunning hell.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Brabantio expresses disbelief that his daughter Desdemona would willingly fall in love with someone so fearful looking as Othello. Here Brabantio openly displays his racial prejudict against the black Othello. As far as he is concerned such an interracial marriage is against the "rules of nature." He is convinced that Othello has used "practises of cunning hell" – witchcraft – to win his daughter’s hand.

I do beseech you,
Send for the lady to the Sagittary,
And let her speak of me before her father:
If you do find me foul in her report,
The trust, the office I do hold of you,
Not only take away, but let your sentence
Even fall upon my life.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Othello, taken before the Duke and Senators for questioning, stakes his life on Desdemona’s love for him. He asks that she be sent for to address her father’s charge that she was seduced by Othello’s witchcraft. If she speaks badly of him, Othello invites the Duke to take away his office and even sentence him to death. Othello puts his life on the line here, confident that Desdemona will provide proof that her father’s allegation is false.

Her father loved me; oft invited me;
Still question’d me the story of my life,
From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have passed.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Brabantio views Othello as someone who has bewitched his daughter using magic spells, but Brabantio didn’t always have this hostile opinion of the Moor. Othello recounts how Brabantio once had a strong love for him and was admiring of his soldierly reputation and the battles and sieges he fought in.

She’d come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Othello tells how Desdemona fell in love with him through listening to his dramatic tales of derring-do and distant adventures as a fearless soldier. The description of Desdemona’s ear as "greedy" is an example of personification. The use of animalistic words like "greedy" and "devour" paint a picture of Desdemona as a passionate woman of sexual desires, in contrast to the demure and chase image her father has portrayed of her.

I did consent,
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffer’d. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs;
She swore, in faith, ’twas strange, ’twas passing strange,
‘Twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful:
She wish’d she had not heard it, yet she wish’d
That heaven had made her such a man: she thank’d me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story.
And that would woo her.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Othello tells the Duke of Venice and Brabantio the story of how Desdemona fell in love with him. On hearing his harrowing and exotic tales of an adventurous youth, it was the brave Othello’s suffering that won her heart. Desdemona’s compassionate nature is revealed here, also that it was Desdemona who fell in love with Othello first.

That I did love the Moor to live with him,
My downright violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Desdemona portrays herself as a fiercely independent woman and breaker of social norms in this speech to the Senate. This is shown in her "downright violence" against custom by eloping with Othello and denying her father any say in her choice of husband. This passage shows the warrior in Desdemona taking her fortune by "storm" and asserting her right to be with the man she loves.

If I be left behind,
A moth of peace, and he go to the war,
The rites for which I love him are bereft me,
And I a heavy interim shall support
By his dear absence. Let me go with him.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Desdemona so loves Othello that she doesn’t want to be separated, even in war. Here she pleads with the Duke and his court to allow her to accompany Othello to Cyprus. In a metaphor she compares herself to a "moth of peace" if she is left behind. This demonstrates Desdemona’s strength of character, But just as moths fly towards light and flame, this also foreshadows how Desdemona is flying towards danger and death.

I will incontinently drown myself…It is silliness to live, when to live is torment, and then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. A despondent Roderigo is so obsessively in love with Desdemona that when he hears of her marriage to Othello he threatens to drown himself. He appear to have no other reason for living than Desdemona, now unattainable to him. A simpleton and weak character, this makes him ripe for Iago to manipulate and use to enact his plan for revenge against Othello. In this passage death is personified as a doctor.

Ere I would say, I would drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen, I would change my humanity with a baboon.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Love is a concept that is alien to Iago. This is seen in his cynical and misogynistic response to Roderigo, who has threatened suicide over Desdemona’s marriage to Othello. Iago uses crude animal imagery, saying that he would rather be a baboon than drown himself for the sake of a woman. Guinea hen in Shakespearean times was another term for a prostitute, which is how Iago sees women in general.

If the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions: but we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts, whereof I take this that you call love to be a sect or scion.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Iago offers this cynical definition of love: it is simply an offshoot – "sect or scion" – of lust. He is responding to Roderigo’s threat of suicide over his unrequited love for Desdemona. He tells the depressed Roderigo that if we didn’t have reason, our passions and emotions would bring havoc to our lives. That is why we have reason to control our raging passions and impulses.

The food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida. She must change for youth: when she is sated with his body, she will find the error of her choice: she must have change, she must.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. In a metaphor Iago compares Desdemona to food, and uses similes to say that while she is as delicious as locusts to Othello now she will soon taste like sour fruit to him. The unappealing fruit of the coloquintida plant was used as a purgative. Iago lets his misogynistic attitude show in his view of women as sexual food for consumption by men. He sees Othello and Desdemona’s love as merely lust, predicting that when she has had enough of his body she will seek a younger man.

If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have waken’d death!
And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas
Olympus-high and duck again as low
As hell’s from heaven!

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 2, Scene 1. After passing through a violent storm Othello lands in the port of Cyprus for a joyful reunion with with beloved Desdemona. He uses metaphorical imagery to convey the great happiness she brings to him. She is his calm after the storm. This is the high point of their love and happiness.

If it were now to die,
‘Twere now to be most happy; for, I fear,
My soul hath her content so absolute
That not another comfort like to this
Succeeds in unknown fate.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 2, Scene 1. An overjoyed Othello meets up with Desdemona after surviving the sea storm off Cyprus. He describes it as the happiest he has ever been and will ever be. If he were to die now, it would be at the most joyful moment of his life, he says. This shows the intensity of the love between the two. But there is tragic irony in Othello’s words, for they never will be this happy again as that love comes under strain. Foreshadowed is how their love will be tested to breaking point by Othello’s jealousy and Iago’s manipulations, leading to a horrific fate for both.

The heavens forbid
But that our loves and comforts should increase,
Even as our days do grow!

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 2, Scene 1. In this moment of dramatic irony, Desdemona calls to the heavens to continue to increase the love and comfort she and Othello enjoy as they grow older. The audience is aware of Iago’s plot to spoil Desdemona’s dream, so that increase in love is unlikely to happen. At the end of Act 1 Iago revealed his plan to drop hints to Othello that Desdemona is cheating on him with Cassio.

Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor, but for bragging and telling her fantastical lies: and will she love him still for prating? let not thy discreet heart think it.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 2, Scene 1. There is an irony in an inveterate liar like Iago accusing Othello of telling "fantastical lies" and making up stories in order to win Desdemona’s love. He is trying to convince Roderigo that Desdemona fell in love with Othello too quickly and will soon grow tired of him.

Blessed fig’s-end! the wine she drinks is made of grapes: if she had been blessed, she would never have loved the Moor.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 2, Scene 1. Iago rubbishes Roderigo’s idealized idea of Desdemona as a woman of high virtue – "full of most blessed condition." He uses the metaphor of the wine that she drinks to say that she is just like every other woman. His racial prejudice is evident in declaring that if Desdemona was "blessed" she would never have loved a black man like Othello.
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