Not exhaustive or "favorite" list, as there are many more than 13, but without further or much ado[1], here are 13 Shakespeare Quotes.
For those who want just the quotes and no rambles: Voilà.
1.
Are his wits safe? Is he not light of brain?
– Lodovico, Othello
2.
I am sure care's an enemy to life.
- Sir Toby, Twelfth Night
3.
Malvolio: I am as well in my wits, fool, as thou art.
Feste: But as well? Then you are mad indeed, if you be no better in your wits than a fool.
- Twelfth Night
4.
Such harmony is in immortal souls,
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.
– Lorenzo, Merchant of Venice
5.
O god that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market place.
– Beatrice, Much Ado About Nothing
6.
Patience is stale, and I am weary of it. *proceeds to kill two men*
– Richard II
7.
‘tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall.
– Angelo, Measure for Measure
8.
Hamlet: What’s the news?
Rosencrantz: None, my lord, but that the world’s grown honest.
Hamlet: Then is doomsday near.
- Hamlet
9.
…Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it.
– Malcolm, Macbeth
10.
....For I cannot be
Mine own, nor anything to any, if
I be not thine.
– Florizel, Winter's Tale
11.
Simple, plain Clarence, I do love thee so
That I will shortly send they soul to heaven.
- Richard III
12.
I would 't'were bedtime, Hal, and all well.
– Falstaff, 1 Henry IV
13.
Brackenbury: What wouldst thou, fellow? And how cams't thou hither?
Second Murderer: I would speak with Clarence, and I came hither on my legs.
- Richard III
For those who are interested in my Shakespeare rambles: Voilà.
1. Besides Hamlet, Othello is my favorite tragedy. And really, that comparison is not apt, as I love Hamlet for its brilliance and its importance as a cultural object, but I love Othello's characters, its story. I love Othello as a narrative and feel for the people in it; I've spent so much time dissecting Hamlet in minutest detail that the characters are no longer real: they're changeable ciphers, useful lenses through which to see clearly cultural moments and human nature. But Othello, man, Othello. Those are some dang tragic, misguided, loyal, conniving, and evil characters. Emilia who is such a broken, cowed woman until the end when she gets her rage on. Iago with his void of self and manipulative ways, who destroys everybody's lives so completely that you can't help but applaud. Othello, whose trusting nature and sense of honor just somehow won't quite extend to his wife he loves.
2 & 3. Feste is one of the sassiest, piercing Fool characters in the Shakespeare cannon. He takes things to their logical, ridiculous ends, and allows no one a moment's piece. His brain is always on, his snark always at the ready. He's not terribly nice (see that whole lock-him-in-the-cellar-and-make-him-think-everybody's-abandoned-him-because-he's-a-lunatic thing he pulled on Malvolio, who while a twit, didn't really deserve that), or sweet, or sympathetic to one's plight, but in the end, Feste will make you see the world more clearly. And what more can you ask from a fool?
4. "Harmony" being music. Lorenzo is expounding here (to Jessica his beloved, if I recall correctly) about the music of the spheres, and saying that humans could once hear that celestial music, though it is our lot to now be enclosed in a body that keeps us from that divine harmony. It's all so beautiful and tragic.
5. My favorite interjection/cursing/moment of outrage, bar none.
6. I am ridiculously, inordinately, and inexplicably fond of the histories. It has been so long since last reading this particular one that I can hardly remember the plot, but I love this moment. Richard II is kind of a beaten noodle at this point, imprisoned by the crown-snatcher Bolingbroke (later Henry IV) [2]. His kingdom's been yanked away, he's sitting in a cell, and life is just not going well. Then this line and subsequent action, which makes me cackle.
7. Measure for Measure is a weird, disconcerting play[3], rather like Merchant of Venice in that respect. There's this terrible man, Angelo, who will only free this woman Isabella's brother if she sleeps with him, Angelo (oh, and btw, he's betrothed to someone else, and Isabella's a novice nun). Angelo is a paragon in the community, however, renowned for his virtue and reserve, so trying to get anybody to believe her that he's a lecherous snot is an uphill battle for Isabella.[4] It's all very blech. BUT, despite all the overtones and undertones and sideways-tones, there are some biting lines like this one. Moments that make your skin crawl with their accuracy.
8. Oh, Hamlet. So full of sass, all the time. I have pages and pages of things I could say about this play and this character, so we'll just leave it at "sassy," for the moment.
9. Sass again from a tragedy! I'm sensing a theme. I suppose I like the dissonance of snark against the gory battles, kingdom disputes, all-powerful Fate, and other Very Serious Topics.
10. Oh, Florizel. This shepherd/shepherdess love story is such a sweet, quiet one, and remarkably free of drama, since it's the B plot (possibly even the C plot) in the play. There's little deconstruct-romantic-tropes, let-us-examine-human-nature in this love; just simple, clear affection.
11. Which is to say, "Clarence, dear, I'm going to have you executed." Richard III is the sassiest of villains.
12. Huzzah for histories! [5] Falstaff and Hal's relationship is fraught and problematic underneath all the joking and bonhomie, but this moment when the ever-jolly, ever-drunk, -theiving, -prank-playing fat knight lets out a sigh of regret to his friend at the battles he must fight and the heartache of his country and his soul is delicately touching.
13. Gotta love those extremely literal Second Murderers.
xo,
Devo
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[1] Heheh, puns.
[2] Yay, Wikipedia refresher course!
[3] "For a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays." source
[4] Wikipedia to the rescue again!
[5] I should make t-shirts.
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