King Lear Quotes

As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods; They kill us for their sport.

Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

Thou, Nature, art my goddess. To thy law My services are bound. Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom, and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother? why “bastard”? Wherefore “base”?

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty According to my bond; no more nor less.

If it be you that stir these daughters’ hearts Against their father, fool me not so much To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger, And let not women’s weapons, water-drops, Stain my man’s cheeks! No, you unnatural hags, … No, I’ll not weep. I have full cause of weeping, but this heart Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws, Or ere I’ll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!

They told me I was everything: ‘tis a lie, I am no ague-proof.

“Oh, let me kiss his hand!” “Let me wipe it first. It smells of mortality.”

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks. You sulph’rous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head.

Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.

I am made of that self mettle as my sister And prize me at her worth.

Peace, Kent. Come not between the dragon and his wrath. I loved her most and thought to set my rest On her kind nursery

You do me wrong to take me out o’ th’ grave. Thou art a soul in bliss, but I am bound Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears Do scald like molten lead.

In wisdom I should ask thy name, But since thy outside looks so fair and warlike, And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes, What safe and nicely I might well delay By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn.

Jesters do oft prove prophets.

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is To have a thankless child.—Away, away!

Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones! Had I your tongues and eyes, I’d use them so That heaven’s vault should crack. She’s gone forever. I know when one is dead and when one lives. She’s dead as earth.—Lend me a looking glass. If that her breath will mist or stain the stone, Why, then she lives.

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

Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither.

When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down And ask of thee forgiveness.

I am a man More sinned against than sinning

Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly!

“The prince of darkness is a gentleman!”

So distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough.

We that are young Shall never see so much, nor live so long.