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Hast thou a favourite quote by the bard Shakespeare?

(222 Posts)
KatGransnet (GNHQ) Wed 05-Mar-14 12:59:10

In the lead up to Shakespeare Week (17th – 23rd March 2014), we want to know the whence and wherefores of your favourite Shakespeare quotes #lamesorry

Post your quote below to be entered into a prize draw to win one of three Usborne collections of six of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays, beautifully presented in a clothbound gift edition. The collection includes Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest as well as a short biography of the bard himself, all beautifully retold and illustrated for children.

Hast thou or hast thou not a quote, that is the question. Prithee, tell us ere 12 March! #alsoabitlame

durhamjen Fri 07-Mar-14 22:57:31

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars but in ourselves that we are underlings.

Why is it Shakespeare week next week?
I thought he was born and died on his birthday, April 23rd.

bmteal Fri 07-Mar-14 23:01:49

"The more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite".
Romeo and Juliet.

Pamaga Sat 08-Mar-14 08:21:51

"This above all: to thine own self be true..." pity it was said by "tedious old fool" Polonius but I like the basic message :-)

petegilb2 Sat 08-Mar-14 09:26:49

Has to be "A Plague on both your houses" Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet

Icyalittle Sat 08-Mar-14 09:58:44

She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,
And I loved her that she did pity them.

Othello 1.iii

Icyalittle Sat 08-Mar-14 10:07:26

And I love Othello's phrase "smooth as monumental alabaster". It feels so good to say, even though the context is murderous.
(Daftly, I took Othello to the hospital as reading matter when I went in to have my first-born 38 years ago. What was I thinking!)

Maggiemaybe Sat 08-Mar-14 10:07:33

Good old Will, still unsurpassed!

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once".
Julius Caesar

annodomini Sat 08-Mar-14 10:24:14

Gently melancholy song from Cymbeline:

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.

The rest of the song is worth reading too.

elliesnan Sat 08-Mar-14 11:57:09

If music be the food of love, play on.

Galen Sat 08-Mar-14 11:58:30

Sans teeth, sans taste, sans everything.

Funkyferret Sat 08-Mar-14 13:09:14

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none from All's Well That Ends Well.

Nonu Sat 08-Mar-14 14:08:44

Think already posted by Grannyactivist , never mind !
It is our mantra when we do our travelling !
smile

Joelise Sat 08-Mar-14 15:59:50

I love The Tempest

"O wonder !
How many goodly creatures are there here !
How beauteous mankind is ! O brave new world,
That has such people in it "

lovelykins Sat 08-Mar-14 19:38:49

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine

borstalgran Sat 08-Mar-14 21:54:04

I rather like : Yon ribrauded nag of Egypt whom leprosy oe'rtake (Ant and Cleo) or
Daffodils that come before the swallow dares
And take the winds of beauty, (Winter's Tale)

Sublime to the ridiculous.

GrannyPDilly Sat 08-Mar-14 22:18:41

'Friends, Romans Countrymen,lend me your ears' - we studied Julius Caesar for O' level English Literature and had such a good teacher he brought it alive; and 'et tu Brute'.

pixiewolfe Sat 08-Mar-14 22:21:56

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” All's Well That Ends Well.

Really nice quote for everyone to follow.

melvis Sun 09-Mar-14 09:29:19

'Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.' from Romeo & Juliet <3 xx

gettingonabit Sun 09-Mar-14 15:11:47

"Out, damn spot" spoken to my adolescent self in the mirror.

"Thereby hangs a tale/ tail" (Iago). According to our rather potty-minded teacher, it's a play on words alluding to a part of a gentleman's anatomy.

fmonson Sun 09-Mar-14 15:13:25

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be" - sound advice!

Gally Sun 09-Mar-14 15:53:02

'Hear my soul speak:
The very instant that I saw you, did
My heart fly to your service'

The Tempest

vidd Sun 09-Mar-14 15:57:16

I love you with so much of my heart that none is

Much ado about nothing

TriciaF Sun 09-Mar-14 16:31:33

I don't know if this has already been quoted:
Sonnet 16
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when alteration finds.
A copy of Shakespeare's sonnets, this one underlined, given to me by a very wise person when she heard about my first marriage, which sadly didn't last.

TriciaF Sun 09-Mar-14 16:41:26

Sorry it should be Sonnet 116.

brizy83 Sun 09-Mar-14 17:35:30

“Though she be but little, she is fierce!”

A Midsummer Night's Dream - sums me up perfectly !