“If we wish to know the force of human genius we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning we may only study his commentators. ["On the Ignorance of the Learned"]”
“I once witnessed a rather unfortunate production of Shakespeare's Hamlet - the lead actor didn't know his existential angst from his iambic pentameter and, alas, poor Yorick was a bemused bystander.”
“[Henry James'] essay's closing lines can either be read neutrally or as a more purposeful wish that this mystery [of Shakespeare's authorship] will one day be resolved by the 'criticism of the future': 'The figured tapestry, the long arras that hides him, is always there ... May it not then be but a question, for the fullness of time, of the finer weapon, the sharper point, the stronger arm, the more extended lunge?' Is Shakespeare hinting here that one day critics will hit upon another, more suitable candidate, identify the individual in whom the man and artist converge and are 'one'? If so, his choice of metaphor - recalling Hamlet's lunge at the arras in the closet scene - is fortunate. Could James have forgotten that the sharp point of Hamlet's weapon finds the wrong man?”
Source: Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?
“No: Shakespear's household bills
Could never be responsible, they say,
For all the heartache and the 1000 ills
His work is heir to, poem, sonnet, play . . .
Emended readings give the real reason:
The times were out of joint, the loves, the season.
- The Critics”
Source: On Seeming to Presume
“Ω! έχει πολλή πέραση
ένα ψέμα με αλαφρύν όρκο
και ένα αστείο με σοβαρό φρύδι.”
“Dear Son,
No matter how high the mountain you have to climb, make sure you climb it with God by your side. By His grace and might, you will overcome.”
Source: Dear Son: An Imaginary Letter from a Loving Dad
“Since Shakespeare had a like for revolutionary rhetoric, let’s all cry: “Peace, freedom, and kindness.” So now we can start the play!”
Source: William Shakespeare Aphoristic Dictionary: With essays by Carl William Brown
“Dear reader, mon frère, increasingly rare, and less and less willing to descend into the depths of unknown literature to find the new, remember well that, as the great Voltaire said, some sentences are worth more than entire libraries, and to quote Prospero, Me, poor man, my library was a dukedom large enough!... So, of his gentleness, knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me from my own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom!”
Source: William Shakespeare Aphoristic Dictionary: With essays by Carl William Brown
“When you are about to trample on others, think that you will soon be trampled upon.”
Source: William Shakespeare Aphoristic Dictionary: With essays by Carl William Brown
“As far as the development of human happiness is concerned I would say that egoism is the higher form of stupid ignorance that prevents it.”
Source: William Shakespeare Aphoristic Dictionary: With essays by Carl William Brown