Useful Shakespeare quotes for everyday life
Borrowing brilliance from the Bard
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I'm constantly asking myself, "How can I look smarter than I really am?"
The answer: quote Shakespeare.
In honor of the Bard's 461st birthday this past week, I've ransacked his repertoire for witty morsels that I can call forth when ordinary situations require extraordinary verbiage.
I submit this list in a spirit of merriment.
Enjoy!
1. When entering a bookstore, stationery shop, leather works, botanical garden, or chocolaterie
“I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it.”
—As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 4)
2. When confronted with much laundry
“I see a man’s life is a tedious one.”
—Cymbeline (Act 3, Scene 6)
3. When your best friend asks if she looks good in her new bell-bottoms
“I must be cruel only to be kind.”
—Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 4)
4. When your kid does the exact thing you told him not to do
"I will not excuse you. You shall not be excused. Excuses shall not be admitted. There is no excuse shall serve. You shall not be excused."
—Henry IV, Part 2, (Act 5, Scene 1)
5. When someone discreetly tells you that you have food in your teeth
“I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks.”
—Twelfth Night (Act 3, Scene 3)
6. After booking a vacation online
“What’s done cannot be undone.”
—Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 1)
7. Your next pregnancy announcement
“The world must be peopled.”
—Much Ado About Nothing (Act 2, Scene 3)
8. When your social battery reaches 0%
"I myself am best when least in company."
—Twelfth Night (Act 1, Scene 4)
9. After 1,000 advertisements have promised you transformation
“Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.”
—Much Ado About Nothing (Act 1, Scene 3)
10. When your flakiest friend says stuff
“Words are easy, like the wind; faithful friends are hard to find.”
—The Passionate Pilgrim (Poem 20) Also, could possibly NOT be Shakespeare
11. When your teenager grabs the car keys
“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”
—Romeo and Juliet (Act 2, Scene 3)
12. When your middle-schooler says he finished his entire math sheet
“Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent.”
—Much Ado About Nothing (Act 2, Scene 1)
13. When you’re pretty sure someone is lying but can’t yet prove it
“Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides.”
—King Lear (Act 1, Scene 1)
14. When someone tells you something you don't want to hear
“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”
—The Merchant of Venice (Act 1, Scene 3)
15. When you pass gas in public
“Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.”
—Othello (Act 2, Scene 3)
16. When you're holding out for a hero
“Give me that man that is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him in my heart’s core.”
—Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 2)
17. When someone offers to return your shopping cart
“How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world that has such people in’t!”
—The Tempest (Act 5, Scene 1)
18. For any rapturous ramble in nature
"And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything."
—As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 2)
19. When staring down a defiant toddler
"But screw your courage to the sticking place, and we'll not fail."
—Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 7)
20. When you look up after scrolling Substack Notes for far too long
"Th’ inaudible and noiseless foot of time..."
—All's Well That Ends Well (Act 5, Scene 3)
21. Thirty minutes after eating sugary cereal
"She makes hungry where most she satisfies."
—Antony and Cleopatra (Act 2, Scene 2)
22. When you snag a good spot on a crowded beach
"O, here will I set up my everlasting rest."
—Romeo and Juliet (Act 5, Scene 3)
Your turn: What Shakespeare quotes can I add to my list?
Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, And the strength of salvation; The fear of the Lord is His treasure.
—Isaiah 33:6
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Michelle
Love this! Shakespeare is always applicable!
This is probably your best one ever!! I loved this so much!