Macbeth Study Guide Quotes

“fair is foul and foul is fair”

the witches said this

-beginning of the play

“so foul and fair a day I have not seen”

Macbeth

-he wins the war

“Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none”

witches

-Banquos predictions that he will not become a king but will have kids who are kings

“the thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?’

Macbeth

-who does not know the thane of Cawdor is alive

“nothing in his life became him like the leaving it”

Malcom

-to King Duncan when discussing the traitor of Cawdor

“he was a gentlemen on whom I built an absolute trust”

King Duncan

-talking about the thane of cawdor betraying the king

“yet u do fear thy nature. it is too full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way”

Lady Macbeth

-she says that Macbeth is too kind to be king

“come you spirits that tend on moral thoughts, unsex me here”

Lady Macbeth

-so she can be a man and do what a man can do

“look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue, look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t”

Lady Macbeth

-talking about how Macbeth needs to disguise himself as kind yet be evil

“if it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly”

Macbeth

-when in talking about killing Duncan

“is this a dagger that I see before me, The handle toward my hand”

Macbeth

-he is going to use the dagger to kill Duncan

“methough I hear a voice cry ‘sleep no more! Macbeth doth murder sleep’

Macbeth

-as he is partaking in killing the king

“why did you bring these daggers from this place”

Lady Macbeth

-she is talking to Macbeth about killing King Duncan

“A little water clears us of this deed”

Lady Macbeth

-she is so guilty of killing Duncan

“O horror, horror! Tongue nor heart Cannot conceive not name thee”

Macduff

-when he hears of the kings murder

“There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the near in blood, The nearer bloody”

Donolbain

-seeing people around him after the kings death he knows there are enemies there with him

“naughts had all’s spent where our desire is got without content”

Lady Macbeth

-talking to macbeth as he thinks about killing Banquo

“we have scorched the snake, not killed it”

Macbeth

-talking about him becoming kind and the witches predictions

“o treachery! fly good fleance fly fly fly thou mayst revenge. O slave”

Banquo

-as he is attacked by the murderers and dies

“there the grown serpent lies; the worm fled hath nature that in time will venom breed”

Murder

-the adult snake (banquo) lies dead and the young serpent (fleance) escapes

“thou canst not say I did it. Never shake thy glory locks at me”

Macbeth

-to banquos ghost going paranoid at the banquet

“I am in blood stepped in so far that, should I wde no more Returning were as tedious as go o’er”

Macbeth

-compares a bloody bath with a river in his mind

“O Scotland, Scotland!”

Macduff

-reacting to the news of his family’s death

“he has no children. All my pretty ones? Did you say all ? O hell-kite! All?”

Macduff

-when comparing macbeth and talking about him killing his whole bloodline

“Out, damned spot! out, I say! One; two. Why then ‘tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord.”

Lady Macbeth

-as she is sleepwalking and trying to get a blood stain out

“let every soldier hew him down a bough and bear’t before him”

Macolm

-when talking about disguising the soldiers with branches (one of Macbeths aparations)

“Tomorow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to last syllable of recorded time”

Macbeth

-talking about the death of lady macbeth, that he emotionally is not in a good place

“Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped”

Macbeth

-realizes Macduff was technically not born a woman and was a C-section

“I will not yield to kiss the ground before young Malcom’s feet”

Macbeth

-as he is fighting macduff

“hail king! for so thou art. Behold where stands the usurper’s cursed head. The time is free”

Macduff

-talking about Malcom finally becoming kind of Scotland