Sonnet 116 Love Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (line)

Quote #4

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come (9-10)

Time (a.k.a. mortality) doesn’t command love, the way a king might command a court jester; instead, love is always more powerful, even though time takes its toll on physical appearance.

Quote #5

Love alters not with [Time’s] brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom. (11-12)

Again, the poet reiterates that the passing of time doesn’t change love, which is eternal. In comparison to the eternal nature of love, Time seems irrelevant and weak.

Quote #6

If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. (13-14)

If we turn this statement backwards, we see that the fact that people have loved before proves that the poet’s view of love is right.