Quotes About Shakespeare

As with all literature, the play should be read through the eyes of the author, as far as this is possible, which in Shakespeare's case means reading it through the eyes of an orthodox Christian living in Elizabethan England.

Which is the villain? let me see his eyes, That, when I note another man like him, I may avoid him: which of these is he?

Antony shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness I' th' posture of a whore.

Out o' th' moon, I do assure thee. I was the man in the moon when time was, --Stephano (Act II, scene 2, lines 136-137)

In order to understand Hamlet as Shakespeare understood it, we need to see the play through the playwright's profoundly Christian eyes. This inescapable truth was understood by the Shakespearean critic E. M. W. Tillyard, who emphasized Shakespeare's breadth of spiritual vision in Hamlet: I doubt if in any other play of Shakespeare there is so strong an impression of the total range of creation from the angels to the beasts. 

So glad of this as they I cannot be, Who are surprised withal; but my rejoicing At nothing can be more. I'll to my book, For yet ere supper-time must I perform Much business appertaining.

Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift; Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.

For let the gods so speed me as I love The name of honor more than I fear death.

Yet I am doubtful, for I am mainly ignorant. What place this is, and all the skill I have Remembers not these garments. Nor I know not Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me, For as I am a man, I think this lady To be my child Cordelia.

impatience does Become a dog that's mad.

I will desist; ...But there is something glows upon my cheek, And whispers in mine ear, 'Go not till he speak.

O, the word rises, but thought crawls, And word without thought comes difficult to heaven.

You shall find there a man who is the abstract of all faults that all men follow.

Was ever book containing such vile matter so fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell in such a gorgeous place!

On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed.

My Lord, I will use them according to their desert. HAMLET : God's bodykins man, better. Use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty.

David: And you think it can just evaporate? Even if at one time they loved one another? Marx: That's one of the sad truths of existence. Nothing in this world is permanent. Even the characters created by the great Shakespeare will, in millions of years, cease to exist—when the universe runs its course and the lights go out.

It is gaol that finally reveals to me the beauty of Shakespeare, the spirit in his words, the jaw-dropping audacity of his language.

My life will not be significantly impoverished if I never see another Shakespearian comedy.

The English public doesn't really like Shakespeare; it prefers football.

Well, what do you know? Fakespeare!

To be a satirist, at all events. The venom of Pope is what is needed. The sense of delight -- the expansion and the compassion of Shakespeare is no good at all for that. He is a bad comic.

I think about Shakespeare. Because there have been hundreds of variations of Shakespeare's plays since they've been written, and I believe it's because they're important. They're still relevant today. 'Roots' is still relevant today. The idea that we shouldn't tell this story again is very strange to me.

What's wonderful about Tolkien and Shakespeare is that they show up your own individual microscope. They're so infinitely vast. You can reinterpret them in so many ways.