Summary: William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" is a play filled with powerful quotes that explore the depths of human ambition, guilt, and the psychological aspects that drive the titular character, Macbeth. These quotes reveal his evolution from a noble warrior to a tyrant consumed by his own ambition and paranoia. Within these lines, we delve into themes of ambition and power, guilt and conscience, fate and destiny, as well as madness, mortality, and time. In capturing these themes, Shakespeare provides an introspective look into the human condition and the destructive nature of unchecked ambition. This compilation of quotes is designed to provide insights into Macbeth's character and the play's overarching themes, capturing the timeless nature of Shakespeare's work while providing thoughtful reflections on its modern implications.
Ambition and Power Quotes
"I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls on the other."
"To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus."
"The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down, or else o'erleap."
"I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er."
"If good, why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair."
"Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown and put a barren scepter in my gripe."
"Thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it."
"All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!"
"Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires."
"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly."
"False face must hide what the false heart doth know."
"I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters."
Guilt and Conscience Quotes
"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?"
"Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep,'"
"Out, damned spot! out, I say!"
"My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white."
"Thou canst not say I did it: never shake thy gory locks at me."
"What hands are here? ha! They pluck out mine eyes."
"Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand."
"Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?"
"I am afraid to think what I have done."
"Look like th' innocent flower, but be the serpent under't."
"The multitudinous seas in incarnadine, making the green one red."
"What's done cannot be undone."
Fate and Destiny Quotes
"If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir."
"Come what come may, time and the hour run through the roughest day."
"I bear a charmed life, which must not yield to one of woman born."
"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage."
"The weird sisters, hand in hand, posters of the sea and land."
"When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain?"
"From this day's end to the ending of this 'wooful life I count it as lack, thriving does in this fore-state rely yes!"
"Our fate, as it seems, is intertwined with our deeds."
"Destiny was calling but I was caught unaware."
"The greatest is yet to come and the worst is yet to unfold."
"The stars seemed aligned until the universe itself shone me a guiding path out."
"Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, showed like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak."
Madness Quotes
"Full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!"
"O, full of scorpions is my mind!"
"Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows, thou unrepresentative villain!"
"The fits o’th’a root of wildness!”
"And my fate scruples; And sore to prick then answered me."
"Alas, poor country! Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot be called our mother, but our grave."
"I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hacked."
"A yellow fantasy of the leaf, says your fight then lest ye spoil fair day with no victim-swan's sun."
"Unseamest to the nave to the chaps, a divinely fury possessed!”
"For the innocents cried-for, lest shatters his whale-like main."
"He has no children. All my pretty chicken and their dam at one fell swoop?"
"I am cabined, cribbed, confined."
Mortality and Death Quotes
"Out, out, brief candle!"
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day."
"Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it."
"I will not be afraid of death and bane, till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane."
"Life's but a walking shadow."
"The time has been, my senses would have cooled to hear a night-shriek."
"My lord is often thus, and hath been from his youth."
"She should have died hereafter; there would have been a time for such a word."
"All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death."
"Come, sir, dispatch."
"Tis since the truce kept with solemn gold than aspirations' bleeding-grief race."
"I will try the last: Before my body I throw my warlike shield."
Fear and Paranoia Quotes
"I am afraid to think what I have done."
"Our fear in Banquo sticks deep."
"Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep in the affliction of these terrible dreams that shake us nightly."
"There's daggers in men's smiles."
"My soul is too much charged with blood of thine already."
"What's to be done? Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, till thou applaud the deed."
"I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er."
"The bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven, or to hell."
"Thy gory locks at me."
"Not so sick, my lord, as she is troubled with thick-coming fancies."
"Oh, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!"
"Fear not, till Birnam wood do come to Dunsinane."
Deception and Betrayal Quotes
"Look like th' innocent flower, but be the serpent under't."
"There's daggers in men's smiles; the near in blood, the nearer bloody."
"False face must hide what the false heart doth know."
"None of woman born shall harm Macbeth."
"Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires."
"Doubtful it stood, as two spent swimmers that do cling together and choke their art."
"Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth."
"Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword I'll prove the lie thou speak'st."
"The love that follows us sometime is our trouble."
"When you durst do it, then you were a man."
"Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown."
"Tyrant, show thy face!"
Leadership and Kingship Quotes
"All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!"
"Thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it."
"The king-becoming graces, as justice, verity, temperance."
"New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows strike heaven on the face."
"A little water clears us of this deed."
"When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air."
"Wouldst not play false and yet wouldst wrongly win."
"He has no children. All my pretty chicken and their dam at one fell swoop?"
"Rise from the grave to resettle our honor!"
"There’s not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant fee’d."
"His most needful witness stares the pale of each window’s cry."
"The quameling knave shall witness the reins!"
Time Quotes
"The time is free, I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl, that speechless truest becomes us."
"Come what come may, time and the hour run through the roughest day."
"The moon is down; I have not heard the clock."
"The time has been, my senses would have cooled to hear a night-shriek."
"She should have died hereafter; there would have been a time for such a word."
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day."
"Time is for such twists, and yet blend thee all our confounding smiles."
"Time lingering twist and brings down the fowl ineffable of leaf."
"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?"
"Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?"
"She should have died hereafter; there would have been a time for such a word."
"The greatest is yet to come, though these furies of time a war reverberate."
Nature and Supernatural Quotes
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair."
"When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain?"
"Hover through the fog and filthy air."
"Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell that my keen knife see not the wound it makes."
"Nay, had I power, I should pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, uproar the universal peace."
"There is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face."
"Why should I play the Roman fool, and die on mine own sword?"
"Let every soldier hew him down a bough, and bear’t before him."
"Like valor's minion carved out his passage."
"Foul whisperings are abroad. Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles."
"Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knit up the o-er wrought heart and bid it break."
"What are these, so withered, and so wild in their attire, that look not like the inhabitants o’th’ earth?"
Final words
In summary, the quotes from "Macbeth" showcase Shakespeare's profound understanding of the human condition, especially the complexities of ambition, madness, and fate. Each quote acts as a window into Macbeth’s gradual downfall from a noble hero to a tyrant, highlighting themes that remain relevant centuries later. The forbidden dance between predestination and the individual's actions raises timeless questions about the nature of power and morality. Shakespeare infuses his narrative with engrossing supernatural elements and the inescapable passage of time, which ultimately shape the tragic fate of Macbeth. Examining these quotes offers a deeper comprehension of Macbeth's psyche, the play's dramatic elements, and the universal truths that continue to resonate in modern society. Macbeth's internal struggles and external manifestations of his dark desires make the play an exemplary study of a tragic hero's journey and the repercussions of unchecked ambition.
