Quotes from The Tempest

24 notable lines from William Shakespeare · c. 1611

We are such stuff / As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep.

Prospero, Act IV, Scene i

  1. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.

    Prospero, The Tempest

  2. O brave new world, that has such people in't!

    Miranda, The Tempest

  3. O brave new world, / That has such people in't!

    Miranda, Act V, Scene i

  4. Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

    Ariel, The Tempest

  5. Hell is empty, / And all the devils are here.

    Ferdinand, reported by Ariel, Act I, Scene ii

  6. Full fathom five thy father lies; / Of his bones are coral made; / Those are pearls that were his eyes: / Nothing of him that doth fade, / But doth suffer a sea-change / Into something rich and strange.

    Ariel's song, Act I, Scene ii

  7. What's past is prologue.

    Antonio, Act II, Scene i

  8. Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, / Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

    Caliban, Act III, Scene ii

  9. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, / As I foretold you, were all spirits and / Are melted into air, into thin air.

    Prospero, Act IV, Scene i

  10. Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.

    Trinculo, Act II, Scene ii

  11. I'll break my staff, / Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, / And deeper than did ever plummet sound / I'll drown my book.

    Prospero, Act V, Scene i

  12. You taught me language, and my profit on't / Is, I know how to curse.

    Caliban, Act I, Scene ii

  13. This thing of darkness I / Acknowledge mine.

    Prospero of Caliban, Act V, Scene i

  14. The rarer action is / In virtue than in vengeance.

    Prospero, Act V, Scene i

  15. As you from crimes would pardon'd be, / Let your indulgence set me free.

    Prospero, Epilogue

  16. My library / Was dukedom large enough.

    Prospero, Act I, Scene ii

  17. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature / Nurture can never stick.

    Prospero of Caliban, Act IV, Scene i

  18. Where the bee sucks, there suck I: / In a cowslip's bell I lie; / There I couch when owls do cry.

    Ariel's song, Act V, Scene i

  19. This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, / Which thou takest from me.

    Caliban to Prospero, Act I, Scene ii

  20. Good wombs have borne bad sons.

    Miranda, Act I, Scene ii

  21. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground.

    Gonzalo, Act I, Scene i

  22. He that dies pays all debts.

    Stephano, Act III, Scene ii

  23. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple.

    Miranda of Ferdinand, Act I, Scene ii