Famous Hamlet Quotes

To be, or not to be: that is the question. – Hamlet

Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t. – Polonius

Brevity is the soul of wit. – Polonius

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. – Hamlet

This above all: to thine own self be true. – Polonius

The lady doth protest too much, methinks. – Queen Gertrude

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. – Marcellus

Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love. – Hamlet

Give me that man that is not passion’s slave. – Hamlet

The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king. – Hamlet

What a piece of work is a man! – Hamlet

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. – Hamlet

This world is not for aye, nor ’tis not strange that even our loves should with our fortunes change. – Laertes

The time is out of joint. O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right! – Hamlet

Sweets to the sweet. – Gertrude

I must be cruel only to be kind. – Hamlet

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel. – Polonius

Let Hercules himself do what he may. The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. – Hamlet

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions. – Claudius

Our wills and fates do so contrary run, that our devices still are overthrown; our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own. – Hamlet

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause. – Hamlet

I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw. – Hamlet

The rest is silence. – Hamlet

The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch, but we will ship him hence. Therefore, prepare you. – Hamlet

Madness in great ones must not unwatched go. – Claudius

We know what we are, but know not what we may be. – Ophelia

Though it make the unskillful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve. – Hamlet

I am thy father’s spirit, doomed for a certain term to walk the night. – Ghost

This is the very ecstasy of love. – Polonius

That it should come to this! – Gertrude

What is a man, if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? – Hamlet

I must hold my tongue. – Guildenstern

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another. – Hamlet

I loved you not. – Hamlet

Give me a man that is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him in my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart. – Hamlet

For murder, though it hath no tongue, will speak with most miraculous organ. – Hamlet

Let me be cruel, not unnatural. – Hamlet

There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. – Ophelia

Diseases desperate grown by desperate appliance are relieved, or not at all. – Gertrude

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man. – Polonius

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. – Juliet (from Romeo and Juliet, but commonly misattributed to Hamlet)

The stars, the stars above us govern our conditions. – Hamlet

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go. – Claudius

I will speak daggers to her, but use none. – Hamlet

O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. – Hamlet

We are oft to blame in this, ’tis too much proved, that with devotion’s visage and pious action we do sugar o’er the devil himself. – Hamlet

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. – Hamlet

That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard. – Hamlet

This is the impostume of much wealth and peace. – Hamlet

Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! – Horatio