King Lear Quotes

→ Lear to Cordelia - Act 1, Scene 1 | Themes: Authority, Truth, Family

"Nothing will come of nothing."

→ Lear to Kent - Act 1, Scene 1 | Themes: Power, Anger, Pride

"Come not between the dragon and his wrath."

→ Cordelia to Lear - Act 1, Scene 1 | Themes: Honesty, Family, Integrity

"I love your majesty according to my bond; no more nor less."

→ Cordelia (aside) - Act 1, Scene 1 | Themes: Truth, Deception

"Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides."

→ Edmund (soliloquy) - Act 1, Scene 2 | Themes: Nature vs. Law, Ambition

"Thou, Nature, art my goddess..."

→ Lear about Cordelia (to Goneril) - Act 1, Scene 4 | Themes: Betrayal, Family

"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is / To have a thankless child!"

→ Goneril (aside) - Act 1, Scene 3 | Themes: Age, Power, Disrespect

"Old fools are babes again."

→ Lear to Himself - Act 1, Scene 5 | Themes: Regret, Insight

"I did her wrong."

→ Lear to Himself - Act 1, Scene 5 | Themes: Madness, Vulnerability

"O let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!"

→ Kent (disguised) to Himself - Act 2, Scene 2 | Themes: Fate, Loyalty

"Fortune, good night: smile once more; turn thy wheel!"

→ Lear to Goneril - Act 1, Scene 4 | Themes: Betrayal, Family

"Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend..."

→ Fool to Lear - Act 1, Scene 5 | Themes: Wisdom, Foolishness, Age

"Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise."

→ Fool to Lear - Act 3, Scene 2 | Themes: Madness, Nature

"This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen."

→ Lear to Storm/Nature - Act 3, Scene 2 | Themes: Justice, Suffering

"I am a man / More sinned against than sinning."

→ Lear to Gloucester - Act 3, Scene 2 | Themes: Poverty, Insight

"The art of our necessities is strange / That can make vile things precious."

→ Lear to Himself - Act 3, Scene 4 | Themes: Empathy, Justice

"Poor naked wretches... expose thyself to feel what wretches feel."

→ Lear to Poor Tom (Edgar) - Act 3, Scene 4 | Themes: Humanity, Identity

"Is man no more than this?"

→ Gloucester to Old Man - Act 4, Scene 1 | Themes: Fate, Injustice

"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport."

→ Gloucester to Old Man - Act 4, Scene 1 | Themes: Blindness, Insight

"I stumbled when I saw."

→ Lear to Gloucester - Act 4, Scene 6 | Themes: Madness, Life's futility

"When we are born, we cry that we are come / To this great stage of fools."

→ Lear to Gloucester - Act 4, Scene 6 | Themes: Misogyny, Madness

"Down from the waist they are Centaurs, / Though women all above."

→ Edmund to Himself - Act 5, Scene 3 | Themes: Fate, Justice

"The wheel is come full circle: I am here."

→ Edgar to Edmund - Act 5, Scene 3 | Themes: Justice, Morality

"The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices / Make instruments to plague us."

→ Cordelia to Kent - Act 4, Scene 7 | Themes: Redemption, Love

"I asked his blessing, and from first to last / Told him my pilgrimage."

→ Lear to Cordelia - Act 4, Scene 7 | Themes: Suffering, Guilt

"Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound / Upon a wheel of fire."

→ Lear to Cordelia - Act 5, Scene 3 | Themes: Love, Reconciliation

"We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage..."

→ Edgar to All - Act 5, Scene 3 | Themes: Truth, Responsibility

"The weight of this sad time we must obey; / Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say."

→ Lear to Cordelia's body - Act 5, Scene 3 | Themes: Grief, Death

"Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life / And thou no breath at all?"

→ Lear (about Cordelia) - Act 5, Scene 3 | Themes: Grief, Memory

"Her voice was ever soft, / Gentle and low - an excellent thing in woman."

→ Lear to Onlookers - Act 5, Scene 3 | Themes: Emotion, Tragedy

"O, you are men of stones!"