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King Lear Quotes

24 of the best book quotes from King Lear
01
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Jesters do oft prove prophets.
William Shakespeare
author
King Lear
book
Regan
character
humor
truth
jesters
concepts
02
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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.
03
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So distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough.
04
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As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods; They kill us for their sport.
05
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Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
06
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I am made of that self mettle as my sister And prize me at her worth.
07
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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.
08
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How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is To have a thankless child.—Away, away!
09
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When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down And ask of thee forgiveness.
10
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Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.
11
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Peace, Kent. Come not between the dragon and his wrath. I loved her most and thought to set my rest On her kind nursery
12
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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.
13
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Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither.
14
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“Oh, let me kiss his hand!” “Let me wipe it first. It smells of mortality.”
15
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We that are young Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
16
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“The prince of darkness is a gentleman!”
17
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I am a man More sinned against than sinning
18
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Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly!
19
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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”?
20
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Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty According to my bond; no more nor less.
21
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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!
22
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They told me I was everything: ‘tis a lie, I am no ague-proof.
23
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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.
24
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Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.

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