Favorite Shakespeare Quotation

[Sava]

"Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war..."

I don't like Shakespeare though. IMO, he's the English literature equivalent of daytime soap operas.

[mactbone]

"Do you bite your thumb at me!"
"I do bite my thumb"
and on... and on
Romeo and Juliet

[St Leo]

Shakespeare sucks.

"That's a fair thought to lie between maid's legs." - Hamlet III.ii.116

[Boris Godunov]

"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but whole battalions." - Claudius, Hamlet

"Above all, to thine own self be true." Polonius, Hamlet

"Tear falling pity dwells not in this eye." Richard, Richard III

That's all I can think of from memory right now...

[molly bloom]

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 renowned be thy grave!

from Cymbeline, Alfred Lawn Tennyson's favourite Shakespeare play.

Also Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra:

The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were lovesick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes.

[MrBaggins]

The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Act 3 Scene 1

"She hath more hair than wit, and more faults
than hairs, and more wealth than faults"

[Agathon]

Man, you guys like all the sombre ones. Here's one of my faves from Sir Toby Belch, who is one of my favourite characters.

"Dost thou think, because thou art
virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?"

[Agathon]

Anyway, Shakespeare sucks. He could never have written anything like this:

"I struck him twice. In two great cries of agony
he buckled at the knees and fell. When he was down
I struck him the third blow, in thanks and reverence
to Zeus the lord of dead men underneath the ground.

Thus he went down and all the life struggled out of him;
and as he died he spattered me with the dark red
and violent driven rain of bitter savoured blood
to make me glad, as gardens stand among the showers
of God in glory at the birthtime of the buds."

[Ben Kenobi]

That's from Aeschylus' Agamemnon.

Why does this quote strike your fancy? It's very sombre.

[Felch]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
"Above all, to thine own self be true." Polonius, Hamlet

That was in Clueless.

Josh's girlfriend: It's just like Hamlet said, "To thine own self be true."

Cher: Uh, No Hamlet didn't say that.

JG: I think that I remember Hamlet accurately

C: Well, I remember Mel Gibson accurately, and he didn't say that. That Polonius guy did.

Ah . . . Alicia Silverstone

[monolith94]

I like that one thing macbeth says near the end, about us being mere players... or something like that.

Tempest and Macbeth are for me, definitely the most quotable of his plays.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by obiwan18
That's from Aeschylus' Agamemnon.

Why does this quote strike your fancy? It's very sombre.

I would say it is sombre, terrifying, beautiful, joyous, erotic and a few other things all at the same time. Shakespeare can't seem to manage all that.

[Felch]

Is it erotic in a snuff film sort of way?

[Agathon]

Now now, there's no need to lower the tone of the conversation.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Agathon
Anyway, Shakespeare sucks. He could never have written anything like this:

"I struck him twice. In two great cries of agony
he buckled at the knees and fell. When he was down
I struck him the third blow, in thanks and reverence
to Zeus the lord of dead men underneath the ground.

Thus he went down and all the life struggled out of him;
and as he died he spattered me with the dark red
and violent driven rain of bitter savoured blood
to make me glad, as gardens stand among the showers
of God in glory at the birthtime of the buds."

You clearly haven't read enough Shakespeare, then.