Quotes from Hamlet: Prince of Denmark (I.i - V.ii)

“Let us impart what we have seen tonight,
Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.” (I.i)

Horatio

“A little more than kin, and less than kind.” (I.ii)

Hamlet

“Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.” (I.ii)

Gertrude

“These indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play;
But I have that within which passeth show—
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.” (I.ii)

Hamlet

“Tis unmanly grief;
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven…” (I.ii)

Claudius

“O that this too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or the Everlasting had not fixed
His Canon ‘gainst self-slaughter!”

Hamlet

“Frailty, they name is woman!” (I.ii)

Hamlet

“Thrift, thrift… The funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.” (I.ii)

Hamlet

“…Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.” (I.iii)

Laertes

“Do not as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
And reeks not his own rede.” (I.iii)

Ophelia

“This above all; to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.” (I.iii)

Polonius

“Tender yourself more dearly… or you’ll tender me a fool.” (I.iii)

Polonius

“But to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born it is a custom
More honored in the breach than the observance.” (I.iv)

Hamlet

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” (I.iv)

Marcellus

“Revenge this foul and most unnatural murder.” (I.v)

Ghost

“No reck’ning made, but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head.” (I.v)

Ghost

“There are more things in heaven than earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” (I.v)

Hamlet

“The time is out of joint; O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set right.
Nay come, let’s go together.” (I.v)

Hamlet

“See you now;
Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth:
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out.” (II.i)

Polonius

“He took me by the wrist and held me hard;” (II.i)

Ophelia

“This is the very ecstasy of love,
Whose violent property forgoes itself
And leads the will to desperate undertakings…” (II.i)

Polonius

“No, my good lord, but, as you did,
I did repel his letters and denied
His access to me.” (II.i)

Ophelia

“Your visitation will receive such thanks
As fits a king’s remembrance” (II.ii)

Gertrude

“Brevity is the soul of wit.” (II.ii)

Polonius

“More matter, with less art.” (II.ii)

Gertrude

“That he is mad ‘tis true
‘tis true ‘tis pity;
and pity ‘tis ‘tis true.” (II.ii)

Polonius

“…for there is nothing
either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” (II.ii)

Hamlet

“What a piece of work is a man!” (II.ii)

Hamlet

“I’ll have grounds
More relative than this. The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.” (II.ii)

Hamlet

“How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience.” (III.i)

Claudius

“…To die —to sleep.
To sleep —perchance to a dream; ay there’s the rub!” (III.i)

Hamlet

“Get thee to a nunnery!” (III.i)

Hamlet

“Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.” (III.i)

Polonius

“Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.” (III.ii)

Hamlet

“It was a brute part to kill so capital a calf there.” (III.ii)

Hamlet

“Give me than man
That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him
In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.” (III.ii)

Hamlet

“A second time I kill my husband dead
When second husband kisses me in bed.” (III.ii)

Player Queen

“So think thou wilt no second husband wed
But die thy thoughts when the first lord is dead.” (III.ii)

Player Queen

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” (III.ii)

Gertrude

“Give me some light! Away.” (III.ii.281)

Claudius

“Blood, do you think I am easier to be played on
than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will,
though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me.” (III.ii)

Hamlet

“Now could I drink hot blood
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on. Soft! Now to say my mother!
O heart, lose not they nature, let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom.” (III.ii)

Hamlet

“Behind the arras I’ll convey myself
To hear the process.” (III.iii)

Polonius

“O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,
A brother’s murder!” (III.iii)

Claudius

“My word fly up, my thoughts remain below;
Words without never to heaven go.” (III.iii)

Claudius

“Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better.” (III.iv)

Hamlet

“O, speak to me no more;
These words like daggers enter mine ears.” (III.iv)

Gertrude

“For ‘tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petar; and ‘t shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon.” (III.iv)

Hamlet

“O heavy deed… It had been so with us, had we been there.
His liberty is full of threats to all.” (IV.i)

Claudius

“Yet must we not put the strong law on him:
He’s lov’d of the distracted multitude.” (IV.iii)

Claudius

“A man may wish with a worm that hath eat of a king,
and eat of the fish that hath fed on the worm.” (IV.iii)

Hamlet

“…But if indeed you find him not within a month,
you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the
lobby.” (IV.iii)

Hamlet

“Our sovereign process, which imports at full
By letters congruing to that effect
The present death of Hamlet. Do it England;” (IV.iii)

Claudius

“Truly to speak, and with no addition,
We go to gain a little patch of ground
That hath in it no profit but the name.
To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it.” (IV.iv)

Captain

“How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge!” (IV.iv)

Hamlet

“O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!” (IV.iv)

Hamlet

“Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day,
All in morning betime,
And I maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.” (IV.v)

Ophelia

“O, this is poison of deep grief, it springs
All from her father’s death.” (IV.v)

Claudius

“O thou vile King, Give me my father.” (IV.v)

Laertes

“To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation.” (IV.v)

Laertes

“I will do’t!
And for that purpose I’ll anoint my sword.” (IV.vii)

Laertes

“Therefore this project
Should have a back or second, that might hold
If this should blast in proof” (IV.vii)

Claudius

“One woe doth tread upon another’s heel.
So fast they follow. Your sister’s drowned, Laertes.” (IV.vii)

Gertrude

“Alas, poor
Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, A fellow of infinite
jest, of most excellent fancy.” (V.i)

Hamlet

“Sweets to the sweet! Farewell.
I hop’d thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife;” (V.i)

Gertrude

“Hold off the earth awhile,
Till I have caught her once more in mine arms.” (V.i)

Laertes

“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will—” (V.ii)

Hamlet

“But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
That to Laertes I forgot myself;
For, by the image of my cause I see
The portraiture of his.” (V.ii)

Hamlet

“…we defy augury. There’s a
special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it
be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will
be now; if it be not now, yet it will come:
the readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what
he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes? Let be.” (V.ii)

Hamlet

“Why, as a woodcock to mine own spring, Osric.
I am justly killed with mine own treachery.” (V.ii)

Laertes

“The point envenomed too?
Then, venom , to they work.” (V.ii)

Hamlet

“I am more an antique Roman than a Dane.
Here’s yet some liquor left.” (V.ii)

Horatio

“So tell him, with th’ occurrents, more and less
Which have solicited. The rest is silence.” (V.ii)

Hamlet

“Now cracks the noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.” (V.ii)

Horatio