The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice was a play written by dramatist William Shakespeare.

In 2293, General Chang paraphrased lines from play, saying "Tickle us, do we not laugh? Prick us, do we not bleed? Wrong us, shall we not revenge?" while his Bird-of-Prey attacked the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) over Khitomer. 

In 2364, under the influence of polywater intoxication, Data used a slightly rephrased quote from the play to finish his explanation of his similarity to Humans saying, "I have pores. Humans have pores. I have fingerprints. Humans have fingerprints. My chemical nutrients are like your blood. If you prick me, do I not leak?"

In that year, and into the next, several pages of this play from The Annotated Shakespeare were on display in Captain Jean-Luc Picard's ready room and quarters on the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D). 

As Luther Sloan explained to Kimara Cretak in 2375 "The phrase 'never say die' was originally from a nineteenth century poem based on Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice'. It has since passed into the vernacular as an exhortation never to give up, no matter what the cost."