"Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made For kissing, lady, not for such contempt"
- William Shakespeare
About this Quote
In this quote from William Shakespeare's play, "Richard III," the speaker is encouraging the girl to be careful with her words and not to express her reject so freely. Using the expression "teach not thy lip such reject" suggests that the girl's spoken reject is a learned behavior, and the speaker advises her to change her ways. He even more discusses that her lips were made for kissing, not for revealing contempt. In a wider sense, the quote recommends that words have power and that people need to take care with what they say. It advises us that our words can be painful or valuable, depending on how we utilize them.
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