William Shakespeare Hamlet Quotes & Sayings

HAMLET To be or not to be - that is the question: 64 Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer 65 The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, 66 Or to take arms against a sea of troubles 67 And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep - 68 No more - and by a sleep to say we end 69 The heartache and the thousand natural shocks 70 That flesh is heir to - 'tis a consummation 71 Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep - 72 To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub, 73 For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, 74 When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, — William Shakespeare

Polonius: My lord, I will take my leave of you.
Hamlet: You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal ... — William Shakespeare

Now I am alone.
Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all his visage wanned,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing
For Hecuba!
What's Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba
That he should weep for her? What would he do
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appall the free ... Hamlet Act II, Scene II — William Shakespeare

Queen. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. [225] Hamlet — William Shakespeare

One of the popular songs in Tyler's rebellion was the familiar couplet: "When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?" Shakespeare refers to it in "Hamlet," where the grave-diggers speak as follows: "First Clown. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentleman but gardners, ditchers and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession. Second Clown. Was he a gentleman? First Clown. He was the first that ever bore arms. Second Clown. Why, he had none. First Clown. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture? The Scripture says, Adam digged; could he dig without arms?" (Act 5, — William Shakespeare

That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty. — William Shakespeare

In order to understand Hamlet as Shakespeare understood it, we need to see the play through the playwright's profoundly Christian eyes. This inescapable truth was understood by the Shakespearean critic E. M. W. Tillyard, who emphasized Shakespeare's breadth of spiritual vision in Hamlet: I doubt if in any other play of Shakespeare there is so strong an impression of the total range of creation from the angels to the beasts. — William Shakespeare

They say an old man is twice a child — William Shakespeare

You Jig, you amble, and you lisp. — William Shakespeare

We are arrant knaves all, believe none of us. — William Shakespeare

This is the very ecstasy of love. — William Shakespeare

POLONIUS: What do you read, my lord?
HAMLET: Words, words, words. — William Shakespeare

The Devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape. — William Shakespeare

PROLOGUE:
For us and for our tragedy,
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.
HAMLET:
Is this a prologue or the posy of a ring? — William Shakespeare

O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there! — William Shakespeare

To sleep perchance to dream — William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragic play written early in the career of William Shakespeare about two teenage "star-cross'd lovers" whose untimely deaths ultimately unite their feuding households. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal "young lovers". (From Wikipedia) — Jane Austen

In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets. Hamlet. — William Shakespeare

And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. — William Shakespeare

Something's rotten in Denmark." ~~Hamlet — William Shakespeare

Hamlet: Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring? Ophelia: 'Tis brief, my lord. Hamlet: As woman's love. — William Shakespeare

We know what we are, but not what we may be. — William Shakespeare

Frailty, thy name is woman! — William Shakespeare

It's a pity that the rich have more freedom to hang or drown themselves than the rest of us Christians. — William Shakespeare

POLONIUS My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently.
HAMLET Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
POLONIUS By th'mass, and 'tis like a camel indeed.
HAMLET Methinks it is like a weasel.
POLONIUS It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET Or like a whale?
POLONIUS Very like a whale.
HAMLET Then I will come to my mother by and by. - They fool me to the top of my bent. - I will come by and by. — William Shakespeare

Hamlet: Lady, shall I lie in your lap? Ophelia: No, my lord. Hamlet: DId you think I meant country matters? Ophelia: I think nothing, my lord. Hamlet: That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs. Ophelia: What is, my lord? Hamlet: Nothing. — William Shakespeare

Do you take me for a sponge, my lord? hamlet: Ay, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. rosencrantz: I understand you not, my lord. hamlet: I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear. — William Shakespeare

The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment ... We are told that by its aid the stars are weighed and the billions of molecules in a drop of water are counted. Yet, like the ghost of Hamlet's father, this great science eludes the efforts of our mental weapons to grasp it. — Alfred North Whitehead

KING CLAUDIUS
How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
HAMLET
Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun. — William Shakespeare

The Play's the Thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King. — William Shakespeare

You speak like a green girl / unsifted in such perilous circumstances. — William Shakespeare

Lord Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.
Lord Polonius: What is the matter, my lord?
Hamlet: Between who?
Lord Polonius: I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. — William Shakespeare

Where is Polonius?
HAMLET
In heaven. Send hither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i' th' other place yourself. But if indeed you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. — William Shakespeare

Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off ... Do not for ever with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust. — William Shakespeare

Pray, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts. — William Shakespeare

Who would fardels bear,
To groan and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus, conscience does make cowards of us all; — William Shakespeare

O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
--Hamlet (I, v, 106) — William Shakespeare

My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules. — William Shakespeare

Mother, you have my father much offended. — William Shakespeare

This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? — William Shakespeare

I do not set my life at a pin's fee,
And for my soul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself? — William Shakespeare

Lay her i' the earth: And from her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest, A ministering angel shall my sister be, When thou liest howling. HAMLET. What, the fair Ophelia! QUEEN GERTRUDE. Sweets to the sweet: farewell! — William Shakespeare

The ordinary price paid for a new play was less than seven pounds; Oldys, on what authority is not known, says that Shakespeare received only five pounds for "Hamlet. — William Shakespeare

Hamlet, I will argue, is a play about reading and misreading, about the difficulties of interpretation. — William Shakespeare

Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. - WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet — John E. Douglas

In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, "to be, or not to be, that is the question." In the 21st century, "to code, or not to code, that is the challenge. — Newton Lee

Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in, bear t that th' opposed may beware of thee. — William Shakespeare

ROSENCRANTZ My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.
HAMLET The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing -
GUILDENSTERN A thing my lord?
HAMLET Of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after! — William Shakespeare

He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone; At his head a grass-green turf, At his heels a stone. — William Shakespeare

HAMLET I will receive it sir with all diligence of spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use, 'tis for the head.
OSRIC I thank you lordship, it is very hot.
HAMLET No believe me, 'tis very cold, the wind is northerly.
OSRIC It is indifferent cold my lord, indeed.
HAMLET But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion.
OSRIC Exceedingly my lord, it is very sultry, as 'twere - I cannot tell how. But my lord, his majesty bade me signify to you that a has laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter -
HAMLET I beseech you remember.
(Hamlet moves him to put on his hat) — William Shakespeare

My enlightened racial consciousness demands that I reject the so-called greatness of William Faulkner and William Shakespeare. I don't have time for any of that Hamlet jive -- but Marvel superheroes are super cool. — Ta-Nehisi Coates

What a piece of work is man" ~ Hamlet — William Shakespeare

The play's the thing." ~~Hamlet — William Shakespeare

Well said, old mole! — William Shakespeare

I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. — William Shakespeare

Why, what should be the fear?
I do not set my life at a pin's fee. — William Shakespeare

To persevere
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness: 'tis unmanly grief. — William Shakespeare

O,speak to me no more;these words like daggers enter my ears.(a fancy way of saying SHUT UP!)"
- William Shakespeare "hamlet — William Shakespeare

POLONIUS : My Lord, I will use them according to their desert.

HAMLET : God's bodykins man, better. Use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. — William Shakespeare

Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery, you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass..." Hamlet. — William Shakespeare

To die, to sleep -
To sleep, perchance to dream - ay, there's the rub,
For in this sleep of death what dreams may come ... — William Shakespeare

But to my mind, though I am native here, And to the manner born, it is a custom, More honored in the breach than the observance. — William Shakespeare

HAMLET [ ... ] we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table; that's the end.
CLAUDIUS Alas, alas.
HAMLET A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
CLAUDIUS What dost thou mean by this?
HAMLET Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar. — William Shakespeare

When Rosencrantz asks Hamlet, "Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? You do surely bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your grief to your friends"(III, ii, 844-846), Hamlet responds, "Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck from my lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me." (III,ii, 371-380) — William Shakespeare

Mad I call it, for to define true madness, what is't to be nothing else but mad? — William Shakespeare

The time is out of joint : O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right! — William Shakespeare

This is the very coinage of your brain: this bodiless creation ecstasy. — William Shakespeare

We defy augury. There is special providence in
the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to
come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come - the
readiness is all. Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows what is't
to leave betimes, let be. (Hamlet 5.2.217-224) — William Shakespeare

Will you walk out of the air, my lord? HAMLET Into my grave. — William Shakespeare

Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,
Drink off this potion! — William Shakespeare

Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death the memory be green. — William Shakespeare

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
And each particular hair to stand on end
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
But this eternal blazon must not be
To ears of flesh and blood.
List, list, O list! — William Shakespeare

Our son shall win.
QUEEN-He is fat and scant of breath. Here Hamlet, Wipe thy brow. — William Shakespeare

Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
Polonius: By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.
Hamlet: Methinks it is like a weasel.
Polonius: It is backed like a weasel.
Hamlet: Or like a whale?
Polonius: Very like a whale. — William Shakespeare

Hamlet: Farewell, dear mother
Claudius: Thy loving father, Hamlet
Hamlet: My mother. Father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh; so my mother. — William Shakespeare

Angels and ministers of grace defend us. — William Shakespeare

Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that. It was the very day that young Hamlet was born, he that is mad and sent into England."
"Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?"
"Why, because he was mad. He shall recover his wits there, or, if he do not, it's no great matter there."
"Why?"
"'Twill not be seen in him there. There the men are as mad as he. — William Shakespeare

After your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live. — William Shakespeare

+"There is method in my madness."~Hamlet — William Shakespeare

Such wanton, wild, and usual slips/ As are companions noted and most known/ To youth and liberty. — William Shakespeare

In the corrupted currents of this world
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law. . .
(Claudius, from Hamlet, Act 3, scene 3) — William Shakespeare

Though this be madness, yet there is method in't. — William Shakespeare

Use them after your own honour and dignity; the less they deserve, the more merit in your bounty. - Hamlet to Polonius — William Shakespeare

Ghost: Murder most foul, as in the best it is. But this most foul, strange and unnatural. — William Shakespeare

Thine evermore, most dear lady,
Whilst this machine is to him,
Hamlet. — William Shakespeare

More grief to hide than hate to utter love. Polonius, Hamlet. — William Shakespeare

HAMLET
I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?
GUILDENSTERN
My lord, I cannot.
HAMLET
I pray you.
GUILDENSTERN
Believe me, I cannot.
HAMLET
I do beseech you.
GUILDENSTERN
I know no touch of it, my lord.
HAMLET
It is as easy as lying. — William Shakespeare

For some must watch, while some must sleep
So runs the world away — William Shakespeare

O good Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story ...
O, I die, Horatio; — William Shakespeare

Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered! — William Shakespeare

Doubt thou that the stars are fire; Doubt thou that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt that I love. - WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet — Jodi Picoult

Rightly to be great Is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When honour's at the stake. — William Shakespeare

This fell sergeant, Death, Is strict in his arrest. — William Shakespeare

To take arms against a sea of troubles. — William Shakespeare

+"I'm sick in the heart."~Hamlet — William Shakespeare

They are near the bottom of the food chain - a meal for fish and birds - while humans eat from the top of the food chain, consuming an astonishing array of what lies on the planet. But eventually, even we become food for the worms. Shakespeare saw this connection, writing in Hamlet, "A man may fish with a worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of a fish that hath fed of that worm. — Amy Stewart

If we knew thoroughly the nervous system of Shakespeare ... we should be able to show why ... his hand came to trace on certain sheets of paper those crabbed little black marks which we ... call the manuscript of Hamlet. We should understand the rationale of every erasure and alteration therein ... without in the slightest degree acknowledging the existence of the thoughts in Shakespeare's mind. The words and sentences would be taken, not as signs of anything beyond themselves, but as little outward facts, pure and simple. — William James

Hamlet. 'A1 did comply2 with his dug,3 before 'a sucked it. Thus has he, and many more of the same bevy4 that I know the drossy5 age dotes on, only got6 the tune7 of the time and, out of an habit of encounter,8 a kind of yeasty collection,9 which carries them through and through10 the most fanned and winnowed11 opinions. And do but blow them to their trial,12 the bubbles are out.13 — William Shakespeare

There 's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 't is not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is 't to leave betimes? Hamlet. V.2 — William Shakespeare

If you decide to do Hamlet in a funny hat staged in a ruined factory, it doesn't make you Shakespeare. — William Monahan