Macbeth

"To be thus is nothing, But to be safely thus."

"Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, And put a barren sceptre in my grip, Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand, No son of mine proceeding."

"First Murderer: We are men, my liege. Macbeth: Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men."

"Second Murderer: I am one, my liege, Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world Have so incens'd, that I am reckless what I do To spite the world. First Murderer: And I another, So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune, That I would set my life on any chance, To mend it, or be rid on't."

"Naught'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."

"Things without all remedy Should be without regard: what's done is done."

"We have scotch'd the snake, not killed it."

"Duncan is in his grave; After life's fitful fever he sleeps well; Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison, Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, Can touch him further."

"Then be thou jocund: ere the bat hath flown His cloister'd flight; ere, to black Hecate's summons The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums, Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done A deed of dreadful note."

"Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day; And with thy bloody and invisible hand, Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale! — Light thickens; and the crow Makes wing to the rooky wood. Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, While night's black agents to their preys do rouse."

"Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill."

"Banquo: It will be rain to-night. First Murderer: Let it come down. Banquo: O, treachery! — Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! Thou mayst revenge. — O, slave!"

"Now spurs the lated traveller apace To gain the timely inn; and near approaches The subject of our watch."

"But now, I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in To saucy doubts and fears."

"Now, good digestion wait on appetite, And health on both!"

"Thou canst not say I did it: never shake Thy gory locks at me."

"Lady Macbeth: Are you a man? Macbeth: Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that Which might appall the devil."

"I drink to the general joy o' the whole table, And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss; Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst, And all to all."

"What man dare, I dare: Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger; Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves Shall never tremble: or be alive again, And dare me to the desert with thy sword; If trembling I inhabit then, protest me The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow! Unreal mockery, hence!"

"Stand not upon the order of your going, But go at once."

"It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood: Stones have been known to move and trees to speak."

"I am in blood Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er."

"You lack the season of all natures, sleep."

"My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, Which can interpret farther. Only I say Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan Was pitied of Macbeth; marry, he was dead. And the right valiant Banquo walked too late, Whom you may say, if ’t please you, Fleance killed, For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late. Who cannot want the thought how monstrous It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain To kill their gracious father? Damnèd fact, How it did grieve Macbeth! Did he not straight In pious rage the two delinquents tear That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep? Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely, too, For ’twould have angered any heart alive To hear the men deny ’t. So that I say He has borne all things well."

"Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble."

"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes: — Open, locks, Whoever knocks!"

"Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff; Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough."

"Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth."

"Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him. Macbeth: That will never be. Who can impress the forest, bid the tree, Unfix his earthbound root?"

"When our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors."

"Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward To what they were before."

"First Murderer: Where is your husband? Lady Macduff: I hope, in no place so unsanctified, Where such as thou mayst find him. First Murderer: He's a traitor. Son: Thou liest, thou shag-hair'd villain! First Murderer: What, you egg!"

"Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell; Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, Yet grace must still look so."

"Fare thee well, lord: I would not be the villain that thou think'st For the whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp, And the rich East to boot."

"Not in the legions Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned In evils to top Macbeth."

"Nay, had I power, I should Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, Uproar the universal peace, confound All unity on earth."

"Where sighs, and groans, and shrieks that rent the air, Are made, not markt; where violent sorrow seems A modern ecstasy: the dead man's knell Is there scarce askt for who; and good men's lives Expire before the flowers in their caps, Dying or e'er they sicken."

"Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break."

"All my pretty ones? Did you say all? — O, hell-kite! All? What, all my pretty chickens and their dam At one fell swoop?"

"Malcolm: Dispute it like a man. Macduff: I shall do so; But I must also feel it as a man: I cannot but remember such things were, That were most precious to me."

"Out, damned spot! out, I say!— One; two; why, then 'tis time to do't ;—Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?"

"The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?— What, will these hands ne'er be clean?"

"Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!"

"What's done cannot be undone."

"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."

"The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon! Where gott'st thou that goose look?"

"Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver'd boy."

"I have liv'd long enough: my way of life Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf; And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not."

"Macbeth: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd; Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; Raze out the written troubles of the brain; And with some sweet oblivious antidote, Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart? Doctor: Therein the patient Must minister to himself. Macbeth: Throw physic to the dogs; — I'll none of it."

"I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud again."