Hamlet quotes

I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw Hamlet to GuildensternI’m only crazy sometimes. At other times, I know what’s what.
Sweets to the sweet! Farewell! i hoped thou shouldst have been my hamlet’s wife; I thought thy bride-bed to have deck’d sweet maid, and not have strew’d they grave. Gertrude to OpheliaSweet and still very sweet. Goodbye!I wanted you to be my hamlet’s wife; I thought your bride bed was ready sweet maid, But they have put you in your grave
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, absent thee from felicity awhile, and in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, to tell my story Hamlet to HoratioIf you ever loved me, then please postpone the sweet relief of death awhile, and stay in this harsh world long enough to tell my story.
I hold my duty as i hold my soul, Both to my God and to my gracious King; And I do think– or else this brain of mine hunts not the trail of policy so sure as it hath used to do– that i have found the very cause of hamlet’s lunacy Polonius to claudiusI’m only doing my duty both to my God and my good king. And I believe—unless this brain of mine is not so politically cunning as it used to be—that I’ve found out why Hamlet’s gone crazy
Good night, ladies, good night. Sweet ladies, good night, good night. Ophelia to ClaudiusGood night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.
O Gertrude, Gertrude, When sorrows come, they come not in single spies, But, in battalions! First, her father slain; Next, your son gone, and he most violent author of his own remove Claudius to GertrudeOh, Gertrude, Gertrude, when bad things happen, they don’t come one at a time, like enemy spies, but all at once like an army. First her father was killed, then your son was taken away—because of his own violent actions.
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet. Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee, nor thine on me! Laertes to HamletPlease forgive me as I forgive you, Hamlet. You’re not responsible for my death and my father’s, and I’m not responsible for yours
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, of excellent fancy. Hamlet to HoratioOh, poor Yorick! I used to know him, Horatio—a very funny guy, and with an excellent imagination.
Not a whit, we defy augury; there’s a special providence in the fall of sparrow. 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. Hamlet to HoratioYou’ll do no such thing. I thumb my nose at superstitions. God controls everything—even something as trivial as a sparrow’s death. Everything will work out as it is destined. If something is supposed to happen now, it will. If it’s supposed to happen later, it won’t happen now. What’s important is to be prepared.
o Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. Gertrude to HamletOh Hamlet, you’ve broken my heart in two!
If your messenger find him not there, seek him I’th’ other place yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby Hamlet to ClaudiusIf your messenger can’t find him, you can check hell yourself. But seriously, if you don’t find him within the next month, you’ll be sure to smell him as you go upstairs into the main hall.
But, good my brother do not, as some ungracious pastor do, show me the steep and thorny way to heaven whilst, like a puffed and reckless libertine, himself the primrose path of dallience treads and recks not his own rede Ophelia to LaertesBut, my dear brother, don’t be like a bad priest who fails to practice what he preaches, showing me the steep and narrow way to heaven while you frolic on the primrose path of sin.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, and tediousness the limbs and outward flourished, I will be brief Polonius to GertrudeTherefore, since the essence of wisdom is not talking too much, I’ll get right to the point here.
Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand ofl ife, of crown, of queen, at once dispatched– cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled, no reckoning made, but sent to my account with all my imperfections on my head. Ghost to HamletAnd that’s how my brother robbed me of my life, my crown, and my queen all at once. He cut me off in the middle of a sinful life.I had no chance to repent my sins or receive last rites.
He took me by the wrist and held me hard, then goes he to the length of all his arm, and with his other hand thus o’er his brow, He falls to such perusal of my face as he would draw it Ophelia to PoloniusHe grabbed me hard by the wrists, then stretches his arms all the way out, and his other hand on his forehead, he follows the lines of my face as if he was drawing it
Those that are married already, all but one shall live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go Hamlet to OpheliaTo those that are already married, all of them will live but one; the rest will stay the same. Go to the convent!
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to Heaven go ClaudiusI say words and they fly up but the actual thoughts stay down. Words without meaning don’t go to heaven
The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral..Seneca can not be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and liberty, these are the only men Polonius to HamletThese are the best actors in the world for tragedies, comedies, histories, pastorals…Seneca and Plautus are always perfect. For justice, these are the only men
Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! Horatio to HamletA noble heart has been broken. Goodnight, Prince, and angels since you to sleep!
Why, sir, his hide is so tann’d with his trade that ‘a will keep out water a great while; and your water is sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. Gravedigger to HamletBecause his hide is so leathery from his trade that he keeps the water off him a long time, and water is what makes your goddamn body rot more than anything.
What is Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba that he should weep for her? Hamletwhat does Hecuba mean to him, or him to her so that he should cry for her?
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many players do, I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines. Hamlet to first playerSay the speech, please, just as i told you to. But if you only mouth it, as others do, I should get the town crier to do it
Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry Polonius to LaertesDon’t borrow money and don’t lend it, since when you lend to a friend, you often lose the friendship as well as the money, and borrowing turns a person into a spendthrift.
Why, the, ’tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison Hamlet to RozencrantzWell, then it isn’t one to you, since nothing is really good or bad in itself—it’s all what a person thinks about it. And to me, Denmark is a prison.
You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass. Hamlet to GuildensternWell, look how you play me—as if you knew exactly where to put your fingers, to blow the mystery out of me, playing all the octaves of my range—
July 4, 2019