Macbeth is among the best-known of William Shakespeare's plays, and is his shortest tragedy, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606. It is frequently performed at both amateur and professional levels, and has been adapted for opera, film, books, stage and screen. Often regarded as archetypal, the play tells of the dangers of the lust for power and the betrayal of friends. For the plot Shakespeare drew loosely on the historical account of King Macbeth of Scotland by Raphael Holinshed and that by the Scottish philosopher Hector Boece.[1] There are many superstitions centred on the belief the play is somehow "cursed", and many actors will not mention the name of the play aloud, referring to it instead as "The Scottish play".
Here are the quotes from the story Macbeth:
Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
--Witches, Act I, scene i
Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
Showed like a rebel's whore.
--Captain, Act I, scene ii
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow, and which will not,
Speak.
--Banquo, Act I, scene iii
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence.
--Banquo, Act I, scene iii
If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me.
--Macbeth, Act I, scene iii
There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.
--Duncan, Act I, scene iv
Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it; he died
As one that had been studied in his death,
To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd,
As 'twere a careless trifle.
--Malcolm, Act I, scene iv
Stars, hide your fires!
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
--Macbeth, Act I, scene iv
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition; but without
The illness should attend it.
--Lady Macbeth, Act I, scene v
Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief!
--Lady Macbeth, Act I, scene v
Look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under it.
--Lady Macbeth, Act I, scene v
I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other.
--Macbeth, Act I, scene vii
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more, is none.
--Macbeth, Act I, scene vii
I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn
As you have done to this.
--Lady Macbeth, Act I, scene vii
Screw your courage to the sticking-place.
--Lady Macbeth, Act I, scene vii
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee;
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
--Macbeth, Act II, scene i
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.
--Macbeth, Act II, scene i
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
Which the false man does easy.
--Malcolm, Act II, scene ii
Nought's had, all's spent
Where our desire is got without content.
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy.
--Lady Macbeth, Act III, scene ii
There 's daggers in men's smiles.
--Donalbain, Act II, scene iii
What's done is done.
--Lady Macbeth, Act III, scene ii
I am in blood
Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
--Macbeth, Act III, scene iv
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
--Witches, Act IV, scene i
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
--Second Witch, Act IV, scene i
When our actions do not,
Our fears do make us traitors.
--Lady Macduff, Act IV, scene ii
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell;
Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,
Yet grace must still look so.
--Malcolm, Act IV, scene iii
Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak
Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break.
--Malcolm, Act IV, scene iii
Out, damned spot! out, I say!
--Lady Macbeth, Act V, scene i
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
--Angus, Act V, scene ii
I have almost forgot the taste of fears;
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me.
--Macbeth, Act V, scene v
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. --
Macbeth, Act V, scene v
To know more quotes on William Shakespeare's play,here is the link:
http://www.literary-quotations.com/
Here are the quotes from the story Macbeth:
Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
--Witches, Act I, scene i
Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
Showed like a rebel's whore.
--Captain, Act I, scene ii
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow, and which will not,
Speak.
--Banquo, Act I, scene iii
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence.
--Banquo, Act I, scene iii
If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me.
--Macbeth, Act I, scene iii
There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.
--Duncan, Act I, scene iv
Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it; he died
As one that had been studied in his death,
To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd,
As 'twere a careless trifle.
--Malcolm, Act I, scene iv
Stars, hide your fires!
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
--Macbeth, Act I, scene iv
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition; but without
The illness should attend it.
--Lady Macbeth, Act I, scene v
Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief!
--Lady Macbeth, Act I, scene v
Look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under it.
--Lady Macbeth, Act I, scene v
I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other.
--Macbeth, Act I, scene vii
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more, is none.
--Macbeth, Act I, scene vii
I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn
As you have done to this.
--Lady Macbeth, Act I, scene vii
Screw your courage to the sticking-place.
--Lady Macbeth, Act I, scene vii
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee;
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
--Macbeth, Act II, scene i
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.
--Macbeth, Act II, scene i
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
Which the false man does easy.
--Malcolm, Act II, scene ii
Nought's had, all's spent
Where our desire is got without content.
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy.
--Lady Macbeth, Act III, scene ii
There 's daggers in men's smiles.
--Donalbain, Act II, scene iii
What's done is done.
--Lady Macbeth, Act III, scene ii
I am in blood
Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
--Macbeth, Act III, scene iv
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
--Witches, Act IV, scene i
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
--Second Witch, Act IV, scene i
When our actions do not,
Our fears do make us traitors.
--Lady Macduff, Act IV, scene ii
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell;
Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,
Yet grace must still look so.
--Malcolm, Act IV, scene iii
Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak
Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break.
--Malcolm, Act IV, scene iii
Out, damned spot! out, I say!
--Lady Macbeth, Act V, scene i
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
--Angus, Act V, scene ii
I have almost forgot the taste of fears;
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me.
--Macbeth, Act V, scene v
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. --
Macbeth, Act V, scene v
To know more quotes on William Shakespeare's play,here is the link:
http://www.literary-quotations.com/
1 comments:
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Great quotes - thanks for the list! For more quotes and analysis, you might also want to look at Macbeth at the Shmoop website.
Unknown said...
February 2, 2009 at 12:25 PM