I do not set my life at a pin’s fee;
And for my soul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself. William Shakespeare, Hamlet I iv 65-67
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. ibid. I v 167-168, Hamlet to Horatio
To be, or not to be – that is the question.
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? – To die – to sleep –
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to; ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die – to sleep –
To sleep! Perchance to dream. Aye, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office...’ ibid. III i 56-73
Be absolute for death; either death or life
Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life:
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art. William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure III i 5
It is silliness to live when to live is torment; and then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician. William Shakespeare, Othello I iii 308-310, Roderigo
I never found man that knew how to love himself. ibid. I iii 313-314, Iago
Virtue? A fig! ’Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners. ibid. I iii @319
The power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. If the beam of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions. But we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts. ibid. I iii @325
It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will. Come, be a man. ibid. I iii @334
My life I never held but as a pawn. William Shakespeare, The History of King Lear I i 147, Kent
So we’ll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news, and we’ll talk with them too –
Who loses and who wins, who’s in, who’s out,
And take upon’s the mystery of things
As if we were God’s spies. ibid. V iii
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth V v 22, Macbeth
I love long life better than figs. William Shakespeare, Anthony & Cleopatra I ii 34
The web of our life is of a mangled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not. William Shakespeare, All’s Well That End’s Well III iv @74, Second Lord Dumaine
I see a man’s life is a tedious one. William Shakespeare, Cymbeline III vi 1, Innogen
Will poor folks lie,
That have afflictions on them, knowing, ’tis
A punishment or trial? Yes. No wonder,
When rich ones scarce tell true. ibid. III vi @9, Innogen
As I hope
For quiet days, fair issue, and long life
With such love as ’tis now. William Shakespeare, The Tempest IV i 23-25, Ferdinand
They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow;
They rightly do inherit heaven’s graces,
And husband nature’s riches from expense. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 94
It connects with something very primal. It exists in a kind of public consciousness. This icon of theatre and culture. It is woven into the fabric of our lives. David Tennant on Hamlet, BBC 2012
Every line seems to be a quotation. ibid.
Hamlet is angry and isolated. ibid.
Everyone around him seems to have moved on. ibid.
This play is about a murdered father and his lonely grieving son. ibid.
His [Shakespeare] eleven-year-old son died – he was called Hamlet. ibid.
He asks, What is the point? ibid.
Hamlet 1990: Give me some light! The King reacts. Hamlet is vindicated ... He is straitjacketed to his own morality. ibid.
Hamlet: How long may a man lie in earth ere he rot? (Shakespeare & Hamlet & Life’s Like That & Death) ibid.
Gravedigger: Eight year ... Nine year. ibid.
Teach him how to live,
And, oh! Still harder lesson! How to die. Beilby Porteus, Death, 1759
Life is just a bowl of cherries. Lew Brown, American songwriter
Life itself is but a shadow of death, and souls departed but the shadows of the living: all things fall under this name. The sun itself is but the dark simulacrum, and light but the shadow of God. Lew Brown
Life is too short to stuff a mushroom. Shirley Conran, Superwoman, 1975
I know what I am. I know that I am a lone lorn creetur’ and not only that everythink goes contrary with me, but that I go contrary with everybody. Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
My life is one demd horrid grind. Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby
To burn always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life. Walter Pater, Studies in the History of the Renaissance, 1873
Life well spent is long. Leonardo da Vinci
Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else. Leonardo da Vinci
Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another’s trouble,
Courage in your own. Adam Lindsay Gordon, Ye Wearie Wayfarer, 1866
Human life ... a process of filling in time until the arrival of death. Eric Berne, 1910-1970, Games People Play, 1964
All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don’t know by what you do; that’s what I called ‘guessing what was at the other side of the hill’. Duke of Wellington
What the fuck am I doing here? Reservoir Dogs 1992 ***** starring Harvey Keitel & Tim Roth & Michael Madsen & Chris Penn & Steve Buscemi & Lawrence Tierney & Edward Bunker & Quentin Tarantino & Randy Brooks & Kirk Balz et al, director Quentin Tarantino, Mr Pink
Always appear what you are. And you will not pass through existence without enjoying its genuine blessings. Love and respect. Let not the springtide of existence pass away unenjoyed. Gain experience. Mary Wollstonecraft
My life hath been one chain of contradictions,
Madhouses, prisons, whore-shops. John Clare, 1793-1864, Child Harold
The present is the funeral of the past,
And man the living sepulcher of life. John Clare, 1793-1864