Hamlet Important Quotes

"Stay! Speak, speak! I charge thee, speak"

Horatio to King's Ghost

He is sent to decide if the Ghost is really Hamlet Sr.

"A little more than kin and less than kind."

Hamlet in an aside about Claudius.

When Claudius and Gertrude are talking to Hamlet after their wedding about his long mourning.

"o that this too too solid flesh would melt,That, and resolve itself into a dew"

Hamlet in his first soliloquy.

but it isn't really about suicide

"Frailty, thy name is women!

Hamlet in soliloquy about Gertrude's hasty remarriage.

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be.... This above all - to thine own self be true."

Polonius to Laertes

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

Marcellus to Horatio

"Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder"

Ghost to Hamlet

During the conversation when the Ghost is having Hamlet swear to avenge his murder.

"The serpent that did sting they fathers life / Now wears his crown."

Ghost to Hamlet

"The time is out of joint! O cursed spite that ever I was born to set it right."

Hamlet after the Ghost leaves and he has sworn to avenge.

"Brevity is the soul of wit."

Polonius to King and Queen

when Polonius is telling the King and Queen the reason to Hamlet's madness.

"More matter with less art"

Gertrude to Polonius

same conversation as above, doesn't give less art

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't."

Polonius aside about Hamlet during their conversation after Polonius' conversation with king and queen

"what a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties..."

Hamlet to Guildenstern and Rosencrantz

"The play is the thing/ Wherein i'll catch the conscience of the king"

Hamlet at the end of his 2nd soliloquy when he wants to be sure Claudius is guilty before he kills him.

"To be or not to be; that is the question..."

Hamlet during his third soliloquy.

"get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?"

Hamlet to Ophelia

"Madness in great ones must not unwatched go."

Claudius to Polonius

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

Gertrude to Hamlet

"Do you think I am easier to be played on that a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me."

Hamlet to Guildenstern

"I will speak daggers to her, but use non."

Hamlet to himself about his mothers after he is convince Claudius really did kill his dad.

"O my offense is rank, it smells to heaven."

Claudius in his soliloquy about his brother's death.

"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. / Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

Claudius aside about his prayer after Hamlet decides he can't kill Claudius because he is praying.

"O shame, where is the blush!"

Hamlet to Gertrude

"O, from this time forth / My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth!"

Hamlet during another soliloquy before he goes back to Denmark and kills everyone.

"He is dead and gone, lady, he is dead and gone."

Ophelia singing a song during her crazy phase to Gertrude.

"...herself / Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread side, and mermaidlike."

Gertrude to Laertes about Ophelia's death.

"Too much water hath thou poor Ophelia."

Laertes talking in the presence of the king and queen but more to the queen, talking about how he doesn't want to cry over Ophelia's death because she doesn't need anymore water since she has drowned.

"Sweets to the sweet! Farewell."

Gertrude to the dead Ophelia while scattering flowers over her coffin

"The cat will mew and the dog will have his day."

Hamlet to Horatio

"I am justly killed with my own treachery"

Laertes to Osric

"The drink, the drink! I am poisoned."

Gertrude to Hamlet

"The king, the king's to blame."

Laertes to Hamlet

"Good night, sweet Prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."

Horatio to Malet

"Let four captains / Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage."

Fortinbras to Horatio