King Lear Quotes

AO2 quotations from William Shakespeare's 'King Lear'

Lear, 1:1 - “To shake all cares…

and business from our age, conferring them on younger strengths”

Lear, 1:1 - “Nothing…

will come of nothing”

Kent, 1:1 - “be Kent…

unmannerly when Lear is mad”

Kent, 1:1 - “let me still…

remain the true blank of thine eye”

Cordelia, 1:1 - “Time shall…

unfold what plighted cunning hides”

Goneril, 1:1 - “with what…

poor judgement he hath now cast her off appears too grossly”

Regan, 1:1 - “‘tis…

the infirmity of his age”

Edmund, 1:2 - “Legitimate Edgar…

I must have your land”

Edmund, 1:2 - “I grow, I…

prosper; now, gods, stand up for bastards!”

Gloucester, 1:2 - “Abhorred villain!…

Unnatural, detested, brutish villain!”

Edmund, 1:2 - “we make…

guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars”

Edmund, 1:2 - “Let me, if not…

by birth, have lands by wit”

Goneril, 1:3 - “Old fools…

are babes again, and must be us’d with checks as flatteries”

Lear, 1:4 - “Into her womb…

convey sterility! Dry up in her the organs of increase”

Lear, 1:4 - “I am asham’d…

that thou hast power to shake my manhood thus”

The Fool, 1:5 - “Thou should’st…

not have been old till thou hadst been wise”

Oswald, 2:2 - “This ancient…

ruffian, sir, whose life I have spar’d at suit of his grey beard”

Edgar, 2:3 - “Edgar…

I nothing am”

The Fool, 2:4 - “Fortune, that…

arrant whore, ne’er turns the key to th’poor”

Lear, 2:4 - “I prithee, daughter, do…

not make me mad”

Lear, 2:4 - “thou art…

a boil, a plague-sore, or embossed carbuncle in my corrupted blood”

Lear, 2:4 - “and let not…

women’s weapons, water-drops, stain my man’s cheeks! No, you unnatural hags”

Lear, 3:2 - “I am a…

man more sinn’d against than sinning”

Edmund, 3:3 - “draw me that…

which my father loses; no less than all; the younger rises when the old doth fall”

Lear, 3:4 - “nothing could…

have subdu’d nature to such a lowness but his unkind daughters”

Gloucester, 3:4 - “Our flesh…

and blood, my lord, is grown so vile, that it doth hate what gets it”

Poor Tom, 3:6 - “Who alone suffers…

suffers most i’th’mind”

Poor Tom, 3:6 - “the mind…

much sufferance doth o’erskip, when grief hath mates”

Cornwall, 3:7 - “pinion him…

like a thief”

Gloucester, 3:7 - “‘tis most ignobly…

done to pluck me by the beard”

Regan, 3:7 - “So…

white, and such a traitor!”

Gloucester, 3:7 - “I am tied…

to th’stake, and I must stand the course”

Gloucester, 3:7 - “thy fierce sister…

in his anointed flesh rash boarish fangs”

Gloucester, 3:7 - “I shall see…

the winged vengeance overtake such children”

Third Servant, 3:7 - “women will…

all turn monsters”

Gloucester, 4:1 - “I stumbled…

when I saw”

Gloucester, 4:1 - “as flies to…

wanton boys, are we to th’gods; they kill us for their sport”

Albany, 4:2 - “humanity must…

perforce prey on itself, like monsters of the deep”

Albany, 4:2 - “proper deformity...

shows not in the fiend so horrid as in woman”

Gentleman, 4:4 - “she shook the…

holy water from her heavenly eyes”

Caius, 4:3 - “the stars…

above us, govern our conditions”

Caius, 4:3 - “burning shame…

detains him from Cordelia”

Poor Tom, 4:6 - “in nothing…

am I chang’d but in my garments”

Lear, 4:6 - “I am even…

the natural fool of Fortune”

Gentleman, 4:6 - “thou hast…

one daughter, who redeems nature from the general curse”

Caius, 4:7 - “the powers of…

the kingdom approach apace”

Edmund, 5:2 - “Neither can…

be enjoy’d if both remain alive”

Regan, 5:3 - “Jesters do…

oft prove prophets”

Edgar, 5:3 - “thou art…

a traitor, false to thy gods, to thy brother, and thy father”

Edmund, 5:3 - “The wheel…

is come full circle”

Edgar, 5:3 - “his grief…

grew puissant, and the strings of life began to crack”

Edmund, 5:3 - “some good I…

mean to do despite of mine own nature”

Lear, 5:3 - “Her voice was…

ever soft, gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman”

Kent, 5:3 - “my master…

calls me, I must not say no”