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William Shakespeare Quotes

Browse 105 quotes about William Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare Quotes

“En la época más gloriosa y floreciente de Roma, poco antes de sucumbir el poderosísimo Julio, las tumbas quedaron vacías, y los difuntos, envueltos en sus mortajas, vagaban por las calles de Roma dando alaridos y confusas voces; viéronse también raros prodigios en el Cielo, comon estrellas de colas encendidas, lluvia de sangre y maleficio en el sol; y el húmedo planeta, a cuya influencia está sujeto el imperio de Neptuno, padeció eclipse, como si hubiera llega el día del Juicio Final.”

“It seems ti me that the're a whein o guid grunds for owresettin the Shakespeare play intil Scots. For ae thing, the action is set maistlie in Scotland an the dramatis personae is maistlie Scots. For aw, it haes becom an English stage tradeition ti knap the plays o Shakespeare in a clippit ferr back Inglish accent, an whan this is duin wi Macbeth, it is ill ti credit that the action haes oniething to dae wi Scotland at aw. For another thing, Shakespeare's play is nou that weill-kent that monie skreids in it ir nou clichés - wurds that war aince fou o virr haes becum sachless owre the hunders o year sen they war written.”

“De no estarme prohibido descubrir los secretos de mi prisión, podría hacerte un relato cuya más insignificante palabra horrorizaría tu alma, helaría tu sangre joven, haría como estrellas saltar tus ojos de sus órbitas, y separaría tus compactos y enroscados bucles, poniendo de punta cada uno de tus cabellos como las púas del irritado puercoespín.”

“In Old English, thou (thee, thine, etc.) was singular and you was plural. But during the thirteenth century, you started to be used as a polite form of the singular - probably because people copied the French way of talking, where vous was used in that way. English then became like French, which has tu and vous both possible for singulars; and that allowed a choice. The norm was for you to be used by inferiors to superiors - such as children to parents, or servants to masters, and thou would be used in return. But thou was also used to express special intimacy, such as when addressing God. It was also used when the lower classes talked to each other. The upper classes used you to each other, as a rule, even when they were closely related. So, when someone changes from thou to you in a conversation, or the other way round, it conveys a different pragmatic force. It will express a change of attitude, or a new emotion or mood.”

“O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities: For nought so vile that on the earth doth live But to the earth some special good doth give, Nor aught so good but strain’d from that fair use Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse: Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied; And vice sometimes by action dignified. Within the infant rind of this small flower Poison hath residence and medicine power: For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part; Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart. Two such opposed kings encamp them still In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will; And where the worser is predominant, Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.”

“Now tell me how long you would have her after you have possessed her. ORLANDO Forever and a day. ROSALIND Say “a day” without the “ever.” No, no, Orlando, men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives. I will be more jealous of thee than a Barbary cock- pigeon over his hen, more clamorous than a parrot against rain, more newfangled than an ape, more giddy in my desires than a monkey. I will weep for nothing, like Diana in the fountain, and I will do that when you are disposed to be merry. I will laugh like a hyena, and that when thou art inclined to sleep.”

“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.”

“The Great Dane by Stewart Stafford Martyr father of poison sleep, Rotten carcass of a slain beast, Wicked stars cast against him, Beloved, that loved him least. O maggot of gnawing doubt, Wriggling along life’s tightrope, Sleepwalking this broken path, To a coup de grâce last stroke. The players unmask dark play, Trampling nightshade that reeks, Honour's duel in a snake pit, The shadow castle grows weak. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”

“¡Oh, corazón mío, no pierdas tu sensibilidad! ¡Que el alma de Nerón no halle cabida en este firme pecho! ¡Sea yo cruel, más no inhumano! ¡No usaré del puñal, aunque puñales serán para ella mis palabras! ¡Que mi lengua, como mi alma, sean en esto hipócritas, y por mucho que la amenace y la zahiera con mis execraciones, no consientas, alma mía, en sellarlas con la acción!”

“¡Negro el designo, pronta la mano, dispuesto el veneno, propicia la hora, cómplice la ocasión, y sin testigos! ¡Violenta mixtura de venenosas plantas, arrancadas a medianoche, tres veces infecta, tres veces emponzoñada con la maldición de Hécate; que tus naturales virtudes mágicas y deletéreas le arranquen instantáneamente la vida en plena salud.”

“The popular conception of any philosophical doctrine is necessarily imperfect, and very generally unjust. Lucretius is often alluded to as an atheistical writer, who held the silly opinion that the universe was the result of a fortuitous concourse of atoms readers are asked to consider how long letters must be shaken in a bag before a complete annotated edition of Shakespeare could result from the process; and after being reminded how much more complex the universe is than the works of Shakespeare, they are expected to hold Lucretius, with his teachers and his followers, in derision. A nickname which sticks has generally some truth in it, and so has the above view, but it would be unjust to form our judgment of a man from his nickname alone, and we may profitably consider what the real tenets of Lucretius were, especially now that men of science are beginning, after a long pause in the inquiry, once more eagerly to attempt some explanation of the ultimate constitution of matter.”

“Some 40 per cent of the 15,000 words in Shakespeare’s works were of French origin. The same percentage can be found in the current English version of the Bible. Évidemment, I make no bones about that. This is a book written in bad faith. It’s a French book. So (it is) arrogant. English, full of French, Norman and Latin, is more of a Romance language than a Germanic one. Its Saxon backbone is clothed in a luxuriant and precious Roman flesh.”

“If it were possible for a metaphysician to be a golfer, he might perhaps occasionally notice that his ball, instead of moving forward in a vertical plane (like the generality of projectiles, such as brickbats and cricket balls), skewed away gradually to the right. If he did notice it, his methods would naturally lead him to content himself with his caddies's remark-'ye heeled that yin,' or 'Ye jist sliced it.' ... But a scientific man is not to be put off with such flimsy verbiage as that. He must know more. What is 'Heeling', what is 'slicing', and why would either operation (if it could be thoroughly carried out) send a ball as if to cover point, thence to long slip, and finally behind back-stop? These, as Falstaff said, are 'questions to be asked.”

“One day at Fenner's (the university cricket ground at Cambridge), just before the last war, G. H. Hardy and I were talking about Einstein. Hardy had met him several times, and I had recently returned from visiting him. Hardy was saying that in his lifetime there had only been two men in the world, in all the fields of human achievement, science, literature, politics, anything you like, who qualified for the Bradman class. For those not familiar with cricket, or with Hardy's personal idiom, I ought to mention that “the Bradman class” denoted the highest kind of excellence: it would include Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Newton, Archimedes, and maybe a dozen others. Well, said Hardy, there had only been two additions in his lifetime. One was Lenin and the other Einstein.”