Shakespeare on the Trophy Effect, or the Endowment Effect, or Hot States and Cold States

They are both in either's powers; but this swift business

I must uneasy make, lest too light winning

Make the prize light.

(The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2, Lines 628-630)

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Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing:

Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.

That she beloved knows nought that knows not this:

Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is:

That she was never yet that ever knew

Love got so sweet as when desire did sue.

Therefore this maxim out of love I teach:

Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech:

Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear,

Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear.

(Troilous and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 2, Lines 438-447)

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…but go with speed

To some forlorn and naked hermitage,

Remote from all the pleasures of the world;

There stay until the twelve celestial signs

Have brought about the annual reckoning.

If this austere insociable life

Change not your offer made in heat of blood;

If frosts and fasts, hard lodging and thin weeds

Nip not the gaudy blossoms of your love,

But that it bear this trial and last love;

Then, at the expiration of the year,

Come challenge me, challenge me by these deserts,

And, by this virgin palm now kissing thine

I will be thine…

(Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act 5, Scene 2, Lines 2736-2749)

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Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear.

(Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 2, Line 1691)