What's your favorite quote from Shakespeare?

[Capnmad]

I'm reading "Julius Caesar" -- somehow I've gotten by without reading it til now -- and I was thinking how fantastic a writer Shakespeare in fact was, and how many priceless turns-of-phrase there are in any random work of his...

So I figured I'd ask, "What's your fave?"

Go.

 

[Snail Shell]

King Lear. Act 1, Scene 2, Line 22.

"Now Lord, stand up for bastards!"
-Edmund the Bastard

SS

 

[venray]

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;

Hamlet

 

[happydarwin]

“The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves if we are underlings.”

Julius Caesar

 

[falcon]

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;

Hamlet

I used to know that entire thing by heart, Ray. Sadly enough, I failed Shakespear MISERABLY when i was in high school 🙁

 

[ShadowKat]

"This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."

 

[osprey825]

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

- Richard The Third.

 

[chicago]

"This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."

This Hamlet quote. Mainly the "To thine ownself be true" part. I liked it so much, I got it tattooed on me.

 

[myth77]

"If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking and you beat love down." -Mercutio from Romeo & Juliet

 

[Artoo]

"Conscience is but a word that cowards use, devised at first to keep the strong in awe."
Richard III, Act V, Scene III

 

[miskiduk]

Methinks it is like a weasel

 

[Bugman]

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;

Hamlet

"This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."

I love both of these equally. 🙂

 

[SamuelKhan]

The ultimate tale of evil that is "The Scottish Play"

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

--Macbeth, Act V, scene v

If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me.

--Macbeth, Act I, scene iii

Look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under it.

--Lady Macbeth, Act I, scene v

SCENE I. A desert place.

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches

First Witch

When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Second Witch

When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.

Third Witch

That will be ere the set of sun.

First Witch

Where the place?

Second Witch

Upon the heath.

Third Witch

There to meet with Macbeth.

First Witch

I come, Graymalkin!

Second Witch

Paddock calls.

Third Witch

Anon.

ALL

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.

 

[milagros317]

The Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene i, Shylock speaking:

He hath disgrac'd me and hind'red me half a million; laugh'd at my losses, mock'd at my gains,
scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies. And what's his
reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses,
affections, passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same
diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a
Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us,
do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you
teach me I will execute; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

 

[chicago]

It was just a matter of time before someone posted the Merchant of Venice quote.

 

[ShadowKat]

Here's another of fav o' mine, from A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends."

 

[Backstep]

"'Tis the very witching time of night,
when churchyards yawn
and hell itself breathes out
contagion to this world.

Now could I drink hot blood
and do such bitter business
as the day would quake to look upon."

- Hamlet

(I've had a long day)

 

[milagros317]

It was just a matter of time before someone posted the Merchant of Venice quote.

Sorry, but it had to be included. 😛

 

[fireguardian]

My two favorite plays are on total opposite ends of the spectrum
Macbeth:
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth Act 5, scene 5, 19–28

Midsummer Night's Dream
The lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.

and

Lord what fools these mortals be

 

[chicago]

"O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should, with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!" - Othello

 

[Soda Bobinski]

"The fool doth think he is wise , but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."

As You Like It - Act V , Scene I

 

[Libertine]

Recited this to my father as he was dying:


Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages;
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

Fear no more the frown o' the great;
Thou art past the tyrant's stroke:
Care no more to clothe and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak:
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.

Fear no more the lightning-flash,
Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;
Fear not slander, censure rash;
Thou hast finished joy and moan;
All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.

No exorciser harm thee!
Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
Nothing ill come near thee!
Quiet consummation have;
And renownéd be thy grave!

 

[TheTickleMonster]

Here's another of fav o' mine, from A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends."

I believe I did that monologue from Mid Summer for one of my theatre classes lol.

Anyways, I think the one below is robably my fave because it's the one that came to mind when i saw the subject line...

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.


As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7

 

[Tickleslave83]

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy."-Hamlet
AND (in honor of the day)
"Caesar, Beware the Ides of March!"-Julius Caesar