William Shakespeare, Hamlet Quotes

Brevity is the soul of wit.

So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

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.

There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will.

Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears.

Sweets to the sweet.

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

To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.

A knavish speech sleeps in a fool's ear.

The rest, is silence.

Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her?

Conscience doth make cowards of us all.

By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me.

Give me that man that is not passion's slave, and I will wear him in my heart's core, in my heart of heart, as I do thee.

He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.

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

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.

In the corrupted currents of this worldOffence's gilded hand may shove by justice, And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itselfBuys out the law. . . (Claudius, from Hamlet, Act 3, scene 3)

This above all: to thine own self be true.

And will 'a not come again? And will 'a not come again? No, no, he is dead, Go to thy death bed: He will never come again.

It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

They say an old man is twice a child

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

In my mind's eye

Diseases desperate grown, By desperate appliance are relieved, Or not at all.

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

But virtue, as it never will be moved, Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven, So lust, though to a radiant angel linked, Will sate itself in a celestial bedAnd prey on garbage.

Doubt thou the stars are fire Doubt thou the sun doth moveDoubt truth to be a liar But never doubt I love

Frailty, thy name is woman!—A little month, or ere those shoes were oldWith which she follow'd my poor father's body, Like Niobe, all tears:—

What a piece of work is man!

To be or not to be that is the question.

There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will

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.

Suit the action to the word, theWord to the action.

This is the very ecstasy of love, Whose violent property fordoes itselfAnd leads the will to desperate undertakingsAs oft as any passion under heavenThat does afflict our natures.

The Devil hath powerTo assume a pleasing shape.

O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?And shall I couple Hell?

There is more things in heaven and earth...than are dreamt of by your philosophy.

There are more things in heaven and earth...than are dreamt of by your philosophy.

Remember thee? Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seatin this distracted globe. Remember thee?