Book of Quotes

King Lear

King Lear by William Shakespeare

- "When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools."

- "Nothing will come of nothing: speak again."

- "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods.

They kill us for their sport."

- "The prince of darkness is a gentleman!"

- "Many a true word hath been spoken in jest."

- "Who is it that can tell me who I am?"

- "The weight of this sad time we must obey,

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.

The oldest hath borne most: we that are young

Shall never see so much, nor live so long."

- "Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise."

- "This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,

when we are sick in fortune,--often the surfeit

of our own behavior,--we make guilty of our

disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as

if we were villains by necessity; fools by

heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and

treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,

liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of

planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,

by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion

of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish

disposition to the charge of a star."

- "And worse I may be yet: the worst is not

So long as we can say 'This is the worst."

- "Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say."

- "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child!"

- "No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison:

We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:

When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,

And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,

And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh

At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues

Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,

Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;

And take upon's the mystery of things,

As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out,

In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones,

That ebb and flow by the moon."

- "I am a man more sinned against than sinning"

- "This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen."

- "O, let me kiss that hand!

KING LEAR: Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality."

- "Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!