LEARNING FROM SHAKEAPEARE

 

                    LEARNING FROM SHAKEAPEARE

            The writings of the British poet-playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) are full of innumerable quotable thoughts. Given below are a few of them the reading of which will make you not only learned but also smart and sagacious.

1. As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods. They kill us for their sports.----King Lear, Act 4, Sc,1.

2. Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep. ----Henry VI (2^nd part), Act 3, Sc.1.

 3. A dream itself is but a shadow.---Hamlet, Act 2, Sc.2.

4. Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.---Comedy of Errors, Act 4, Sc.2.

5. What is written shall be executed.---Titus Andronicus, Act 5,  Sc.2.

6. A friend should bear his friend’s infirmities. ---Julius Caesar, Act 4, Sc.3.

7. Lord! We know what we are, but know not what we may be. –Hamlet, Act 4, Sc.5.

8.  We cannot but obey the powers above us. ---Pericles, Act 3, Sc.3.

9.  To weep is to make less the depth of grief.---Henry VI (part 3),  Act 2, Sc1.

10. The miserable have no other medicine, but only hope.----Measure for Measure, Act 3, Sc.1.

11. Jesters do oft prove prophets.---King Lear, Act 5, Sc.3.

12. Be just and fear not.---Henry VIII, Act 3, Sc.2.

13. Kindness, nobler ever than revenge! ----As You Like It, Act 3, Sc.4.

14. The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and evil together: our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our virtues. ---All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 4, Sc.3.

15. Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.---Macbeth, Act 5, Sc.3.

16. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. ----Tempest, Act 4, Sc1.    

17. Love is not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle’s compass come; love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom. ----Sonnet CXVI.

18. Love sought is good, but given unsought is better. ----Twelfth Night, Act 3, Sc.1

19. Horses are tied by the head, dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys by the loins, and men by the legs: when a man  ’s over-lusty at legs, then he wears nether-stocks. ---King Lear, Act 2, Sc.4.

20. 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!

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G.R.Kanwal

14 September 2025