William Shakespeare 1564-1616 Mabeth John Bartlett 1919 Familiar Quotations


1
1 W. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain? 2 W. When the hurlyburly ’s done, When the battle ’s lost and won.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 1.
2
Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 1.
3
Banners flout the sky.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 2.
4
Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his pent-house lid.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
5
Dwindle, peak, and pine.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
6
What are these So wither’d and so wild in their attire, That look not like the inhabitants o’ the earth, And yet are on ’t?
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
7
If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
8
Stands not within the prospect of belief.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
9
The earth hath bubbles as the water has, And these are of them.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
10
The insane root That takes the reason prisoner.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.



11
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s In deepest consequence.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
12
Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
13
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature. Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
14
Nothing is But what is not.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
15
If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
16
Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
17
Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it; he died As one that had been studied in his death To throw away the dearest thing he owed, As ’t were a careless trifle.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 4.
18
There ’s no art To find the mind’s construction in the face.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 4.
19
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 4.
20
Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 5.
21
What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 5.
22
That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 5.
23
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under ’t.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 5.
24
Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 5.
25
This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 6.
26
The heaven’s breath Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze, Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle: Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, The air is delicate.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 6.
27
If it were done when ’t is done, then ’t were well It were done quickly: if the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, We ’ld jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgment here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which being taught, return To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice Commends the ingredients of our poison’d chalice To our own lips.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
28
Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against The deep damnation of his taking-off; And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubim, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself, And falls on the other.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
29
I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
30
Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would,” Like the poor cat i’ the adage. 1
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
31
I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
32
Nor time nor place Did then adhere.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
33
Macb. If we should fail? Lady M. We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we ’ll not fail.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
34
Memory, the warder of the brain.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
35
There ’s husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.
36
Shut up In measureless content.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.
37
Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.
38
Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.
39
Now o’er the one half-world Nature seems dead.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.
40
Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.
41
The bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.
42
It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern’st good-night.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 2. 2
43
The attempt and not the deed Confounds us.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 2. 3
44
I had most need of blessing, and “Amen” Stuck in my throat.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 2. 4
45
Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep!” the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 2. 5
46
Infirm of purpose!
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 2. 6
47
’T is the eye of childhood That fears a painted devil.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 2. 7
48
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 2. 8
49
The labour we delight in physics pain.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 3. 9
50
Dire combustion and confused events New hatch’d to the woful time.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 3. 10
51
Tongue nor heart Cannot conceive nor name thee!
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 3. 11
52
Confusion now hath made his masterpiece! Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence The life o’ the building!
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 3. 12
53
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 3. 13
54
Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment?
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 3. 14
55
There ’s daggers in men’s smiles.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 3. 15
56
A falcon, towering in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 4. 16
57
Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up Thine own life’s means!
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 4.
58
I must become a borrower of the night For a dark hour or twain.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 1.
59
Let every man be master of his time Till seven at night.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 1.
60
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, And put a barren sceptre in my gripe, Thence to be wrench’d with an unlineal hand, No son of mine succeeding.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 1.
61
Mur. We are men, my liege. Mac. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 1.
62
I am one, my liege, Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world Have so incensed that I am reckless what I do to spite the world.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 1.
63
So weary with disasters, tugg’d with fortune, That I would set my life on any chance, To mend it, or be rid on ’t.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 1.
64
Things without all remedy Should be without regard; what ’s done is done.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
65
We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
66
Better be with the dead, Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave; After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well: Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison, Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, Can touch him further.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
67
In them Nature’s copy ’s not eterne.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
68
A deed of dreadful note.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
69
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
70
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
71
Now spurs the lated traveller apace To gain the timely inn.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 3.
72
But now I am cabin’d, cribb’d, confined, bound in To saucy doubts and fears.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
73
Now, good digestion wait on appetite, And health on both!
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
74
Thou canst not say I did it; never shake Thy gory locks at me.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
75
The air-drawn dagger.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
76
The time has been, That when the brains were out the man would die, And there an end; but now they rise again, With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, And push us from our stools.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
77
I drink to the general joy o’ the whole table.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
78
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with!
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
79
A thing of custom,—’t is no other; Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
80
What man dare, I dare: Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, The arm’d rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger,— Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves Shall never tremble.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
81
Hence, horrible shadow! Unreal mockery, hence!
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
82
You have displac’d the mirth, broke the good meeting, With most admir’d disorder.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
83
Can such things be, And overcome us like a summer’s cloud, Without our special wonder?
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
84
Stand not upon the order of your going, But go at once.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
85
Macb. What is the night? L. Macb. Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
86
I am in blood Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
87
My little spirit, see, Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 5.
88
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
89
Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
90
By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. Open, locks, Whoever knocks!
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
91
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
92
A deed without a name.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
93
I ’ll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
94
Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; Come like shadows, so depart!
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
95
What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
96
I ’ll charm the air to give a sound, While you perform your antic round. 17
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
97
The weird sisters.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
98
The flighty purpose never is o’ertook, Unless the deed go with it.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
99
When our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 2.
100
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
101
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, Uproar the universal peace, confound All unity on earth.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
102
Stands Scotland where it did?
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
103
Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak Whispers the o’er-fraught heart and bids it break.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
104
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam At one fell swoop?
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
105
I cannot but remember such things were, That were most precious to me.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
106
O, I could play the woman with mine eyes And braggart with my tongue.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
107
The night is long that never finds the day.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
108
Out, damned spot! out, I say!
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 1.
109
Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard?
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 1.
110
Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 1.
111
All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 1.
112
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane, I cannot taint with fear.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 3.
113
My way of life Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf; And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but in their stead Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 3.
114
Doct. Not so sick, my lord, As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, That keep her from her rest. Macb. Cure her of that. Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas’d, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain, And with some sweet oblivious antidote Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart? Doct. Therein the patient Must minister to himself. Macb. Throw physic to the dogs: I ’ll none of it.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 3.
115
I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud again.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 3.
116
Hang out our banners on the outward walls; The cry is still, “They come!” our castle’s strength Will laugh a siege to scorn.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.
117
My fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir As life were in ’t: I have supp’d full with horrors.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.
118
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace 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 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.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.
119
I pull in resolution, and begin To doubt the equivocation of the fiend That lies like truth: “Fear not, till Birnam wood Do come to Dunsinane.”
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.
120
I gin to be aweary of the sun.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.
121
Blow, wind! come, wrack! At least we ’ll die with harness on our back.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.
122
Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 6.
123
I bear a charmed life.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 8. 18
124
And be these juggling fiends no more believ’d, That palter with us in a double sense: That keep the word of promise to our ear And break it to our hope.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 8. 19
125
Live to be the show and gaze o’ the time.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 8. 20
126
Lay on, Macduff, And damn’d be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 8. 21

Note 1.
See Heywood, Quotation 65. [back]

Note 2.
Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce, Staunton, and White. [back]

Note 3.
Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce, Staunton, and White. [back]

Note 4.
Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce, Staunton, and White. [back]

Note 5.
Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce, Staunton, and White. [back]

Note 6.
Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce, Staunton, and White. [back]

Note 7.
Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce, Staunton, and White. [back]

Note 8.
Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce, Staunton, and White. [back]

Note 9.
Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce and White; Act ii. sc. 2 in Staunton. [back]

Note 10.
Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce and White; Act ii. sc. 2 in Staunton. [back]

Note 11.
Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce and White; Act ii. sc. 2 in Staunton. [back]

Note 12.
Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce and White; Act ii. sc. 2 in Staunton. [back]

Note 13.
Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce and White; Act ii. sc. 2 in Staunton. [back]

Note 14.
Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce and White; Act ii. sc. 2 in Staunton. [back]

Note 15.
Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce and White; Act ii. sc. 2 in Staunton. [back]

Note 16.
Act ii. sc. 2 in Dyce and White; Act ii. sc. 3 in Staunton. [back]

Note 17.
Let the air strike our tune,
Whilst we show reverence to yond peeping moon.
Thomas Middleton: The Witch, act v. sc. 2. [back]

Note 18.
Act v. Sc. 7 in Singer and White. [back]

Note 19.
Act v. Sc. 7 in Singer and White. [back]

Note 20.
Act v. Sc. 7 in Singer and White. [back]

Note 21.
Act v. Sc. 7 in Singer and White. [back]

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