Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Favorite Shakespeare Quotes

Yesterday, as part of the Top Ten Tuesday, The Broke and The Bookish asked people to name their top 10 favorite literary quotes.  I loved this topic and I was impressed by how many people keep track of their favorite quotes.  I do not do this, though I wish I did.  I know I won't start though.  I'm never reading near a notebook or something where I can stop and write down quotes.  And I don't like writing in my books, so I won't have the option to go back later.  Hell, as it stands for this blog I just have to try to remember the quote I want to use for the title of a post, or else just happen to be near a computer at the time.  So because I'm not nearly as organized as so many of you (and partially because I'm jealous of your organizational skills) I did not partake.  I know any quotes I come up with will just be ones I was able to find at that moment and because I wouldn't even be near my bookshelf, it would mostly be me trying to find posts online.

I was disappointed but then I realized something: I'm a bit of a Shakespeare nerd and I can probably remember lots of Shakespeare quotes.  Hell, had I thought of this when I was near it, I own an entire book of just Shakespeare quotes.  So I know I'm late but here are my top 10 favorite Shakespeare quotes in no particular order, other than the order I remembered them in

1. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow
Creeps in this petty place from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
Who 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.
Macbeth V.v.19-28

2. What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals -- and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me
Hamlet II.ii.303-312

3. Demetrius: Villain, what hast thou done?
Aaron: That which thou canst not undo.
Demetrius: Thou hast undone our mother.
Aaron: Villain, I have done they mother.
Titus Andronicus IV.ii
(Right after this line I just hear "Oh snap!")

4. The course of true love never did run smooth.
A Midsummer Night's Dream I.i.134

5. Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediment. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Sonnet 116

6. Reason and love keep little company together now-a-days
A Midsummer Night's Dream. III.i

7. Put money in thy purse
Othello. I.iii.338, 339-340, 341
(I'm presenting most of these without explanation since for the most part I don't think they require it.  This is a fairly vague quote and, if you aren't familiar with the play, you may not recognize it or understand the situation surrounding it.  Iago is one of my favorite characters and I love his powers of manipulation.)

8. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em
Twelfth Night. II.iv.145-146

9. If music be the food of love, play on
Twelfth Night. I.i.1

10. To thine own self be true
Hamlet I.i.78

So I know that reads a bit like Bartlet's famous quotes (which is actually the book I own, though it's somewhere in Long Island at this moment) but really the well known quotes are well known because they're so great.  Besides I don't want to go all hipster and start listing out more obscure quotes to make myself seem pretentious.  "Oh you hadn't heard that quote before?  Yeah, it's still pretty underground.  You gotta be really tuned in to get it."