I have read a lot of Shakespeare. Though I have a retentive memory, whenever I quote Shakespeare it’s almost as if I am going back to the time I first read/heard the words and how it was explained to me by teachers, parents, family.
Tough to follow at first and then tough to forget.
Shakespeare’s works offer timeless lessons ever relevant across generations, blending complex characters, universal themes, and profound reflections on the human experience.
Wherever I encounter researched works on planning, perseverance, managing in uncertainty, risk-reward and human failing, I am always reminded of the empathy and understanding displayed by Shakespeare in his work.
I am getting enough Gen Z reactions to Shakespeare as I read ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ along with my son Arihan (it’s part of his IGCSE curriculum!)
Here are a few for a Sunday afternoon:
“What’s in a name? A rose by any name would smell as sweet”
– Romeo and Juliet
(For my University Fest, I had made a team and called it by this name : WIN – What’s In a Name !)
“Better three hours too soon Than a minute too late.”
-The Merry Wives Of Windsor.
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”
-Hamlet.
“Brevity is the soul of wit.”
– Hamlet.
(My grandfather often emphasised this. Easier said than done! An inspired précis would be “Brevity is wit” )
“Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.”
– Hamlet
“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”
– All’s Well That Ends Well
“All that glitters is not gold.”
-The Merchant Of Venice.
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
– All’s Well That Ends Well.
(A sound philosophy for a happy professional life)
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them”
– Twelfth Night
“To be or not to be: that is the question”
– Hamlet.
“All the world’s a stage”
– As You Like It.
“If music be the food of love, play on”
– Twelfth night
“A Horse! A Horse! My kingdom for a horse!”
– Richard III
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
– Hamlet
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
– Julius Caesar
“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”
– Julius Caesar
(My eldest Uncle’s rejoinder to anyone who believed in astrology etc)
“There is no darkness but ignorance.”
– Twelfth Night
“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
(My Father’s favourite )
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
– As You Like It
And one of my favourites :
“We know what we are, but no, not what we may be.”
– Hamlet