Quotes from King Lear
26 notable lines from William Shakespeare · c. 1605
As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.
Nothing will come of nothing.
Lear, King Lear As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport.
Gloucester, Act IV, Scene I Never, never, never, never, never!
Lear, over Cordelia's body, Act V, Scene III How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child!
Lear, cursing Goneril, Act I, Scene IV Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
Lear, on the heath, Act III, Scene II Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
Lear, to Cordelia, Act I, Scene I I am a man More sinn'd against than sinning.
Lear, in the storm, Act III, Scene II Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither; Ripeness is all.
Edgar, to Gloucester, Act V, Scene II Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
Edmund, soliloquy, Act I, Scene II When we are born, we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools.
Lear, to Gloucester, Act IV, Scene VI The weight of this sad time we must obey; speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
Edgar, King Lear Unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.
Lear, to Poor Tom, Act III, Scene IV Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, And thou no breath at all?
Lear, over Cordelia, Act V, Scene III Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law My services are bound.
Edmund, opening soliloquy, Act I, Scene II Pray you, undo this button: thank you, sir.
Lear, dying, Act V, Scene III O, reason not the need: our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
Lear, to Goneril and Regan, Act II, Scene IV This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune,--often the surfeit of our own behavior,--we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Edmund, Act I, Scene II Is man no more than this? Consider him well.
Lear, to Edgar as Poor Tom, Act III, Scene IV Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm.
Lear, before the hovel, Act III, Scene IV Ay, every inch a king: When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.
Lear, in his madness, Act IV, Scene VI And worse I may be yet: the worst is not So long as we can say 'This is the worst.'
Edgar, Act IV, Scene I The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious.
Lear, in the storm, Act III, Scene II O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! Keep me in temper: I would not be mad!
Lear, Act I, Scene V Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest.
The Fool, to Lear, Act I, Scene IV Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth.
Cordelia, aside, Act I, Scene I