And weigh'st thy words before thou giv'st them breath,
Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more;
For such things in a false disloyal knave
Are tricks of custom, but in a man that's just
They're close dilations, working from the heart
That passion cannot rule."
(Shakespeare, 985)
This was Othello's response to Iago proclaiming, "My lord, you know I love you". Othello was so blinded by his misplaced trust in Iago, and so hypnotized by Iago's pretend trustworthiness, that Othello didn't even allow himself to believe that Iago could be lying to him. Obviously, his trust should have been place in more noble people, like the woman he loved and married, but I suppose it's common for love to make us blind.
If only Othello had realized what he was saying when he talked of a "disloyal knave", and even stopped for a second to reflect on the pile of lies he was being fed, he may have realized that Iago was exactly the disloyal knave he described, and not a just man. So many lives could have been spared, if only he hadn't been so easily swayed by Iago's words.
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