Many admire Shakespeare for his extreme wit, his clever double-entendres, and his beautiful use of rhetoric. However, they have also overlooked how some of his lines can be advantageous life advice or indisputable truths. Here are 11 of Shakespeare’s best lines that can help shape one’s life:
1. “Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.” (King Lear 5.3.343-344)
Society needs to improve on this. Honesty stifles some, when in fact, it can be the best antidote to any situation. Honesty is food for the soul. It allows bonds and trust to form, which would otherwise be impossible. We need to stop impressing others. Instead, we should open our hearts and emotionally strip ourselves down to pure vulnerability. Appearances create an artificial veil between people that prevents the forming of close connections. My older brother gave me a great piece of advice when I was growing up that I still treasure to this day: “If you hide your stripes, you’ll never be able to meet the other zebras.” While it may be frightening to show our stripes to the world, the reward of having a close friendship with someone who one can undoubtedly understand us will orbit for miles.
2. “Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried / Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel / But do not dull thy palm with entertainment of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade.” (Hamlet 1.3.62-65)
This goes hand-in-hand with the previous quotation. It is true that we cannot please everyone. Not everyone is going to embrace us in the same loving manner and mesh well with us. We should not bother ourselves with earning the respect and friendship of everyone. However, that makes the people in our lives that do appreciate us ever-so special. We should treasure our loved ones for they are our support systems. We could not live without them. While there are plenty of kind, understanding people out there, strong friendships are something special and should be treated as such.
3. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”. (Macbeth 1.1.12)
Good is bad, and bad is good. This common proverb, descending from ancient times and rooted in many cultures, has a lot of wisdom. The Chinese concept of yin and yang can best explain this. While yin and yang may not exclusively describe the relationship between the good and the bad, it still expresses the interconnectedness of what one views as polar opposites. While ignorance and a failure-free life may be bliss, one will grow quite apathetic and not value what one has. Although one may feel crushing misery and face crippling difficulty, unbeknownst to them at the time, it will all strengthen one into having the qualities of an active and alive person who is able to appreciate the little things one would have otherwise overlooked and open paths that one would have not originally taken.
4. Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look: He thinks too much: such men are dangerous (Julius Caesar 1.2.194-195)
Everyone can relate to this quotation. Though taken out of the context of the play, it is when people brood in their own thoughts when they find themselves in trouble. Trivial elements can be taken out of proportion. Nothing is what it seems or appears and a mind that spins it finds itself in trouble. It is important to involve oneself in many activities and to take life one day at a time to prevent such danger.
5. “How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?” (Othello 2.3.273-274)
American society has a bad habit of elevating instant gratification at all costs. The New York area, which is where I’m from originally, is even worse for this, branding everything as “efficiency-oriented”. People cannot even wait two seconds behind a stoplight before honking at someone, are never willing to wait in a Drive-Thru line longer than three people, and many stores are making it mandatory to pay with credit card rather than cash to cut down on lost time for counting money. Slow down. We’re not robots; we’re humans. We could learn a lot from other cultures, such as France, where many high school students are given two hours for lunch and are encouraged to leave the school to grab lunch with their friends. In fact, lunch is made into such an activity in other cultures that there are verbs just to have lunch, such as “dejeuner” in French and “almorzar” in Spanish. My high school? Other than my senior year, we were only given 20 minutes to order a sandwich and squeeze ourselves around a table. This can translate into trouble; on a large-scale, this can affect the way Americans think in general. Technology has made things more efficient sometimes at the cost of human connections. When we’re presented a problem, we want to solve it immediately, when in fact, time is required to solve or ripen some situations. As Shakespeare says, any sort of wound cannot heal overnight. Time presents a lot of things for us, and while we may always fear “wasting time,” learning to accept that we must be willing to invest time into things that may not bear fruit is part of life.
6. “The robb’d that smiles, steals something from the thief; He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.” (Othello 1.3.208-209)
One that can smile at one’s troubles is more successful than one who seasons oneself in grieving, sorrow, and self-pity. Life is all about rolling with the punches. One will deprive oneself of many opportunities that can change one’s life and bring tremendous happiness if one is too concerned about the faults in one’s current situation or one’s flaws.
7. “Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.” (Hamlet 1.3.68)
Another common proverb, this piece of advice has been repeated over and over throughout history with different revisions and interpretations, such as Teddy Roosevelt’s slightly altered line: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” When it comes to business and politics, in order to succeed, one must study one’s surroundings and know one’s environment. Speak too much without knowing one’s environment, and one can end up in hot water. Less is more when it comes to talking. As Teddy Roosevelt proposed, it is most beneficial to remain silent and analyze what others’ motives and desires are while also demanding respect in replacement of speaking one’s own opinions. However, even when it comes to personal relationships can this be valuable. People like to be heard and bonds are formed when we show others that we care about their opinions. The more we listen, the better off we’ll be.
8. Take each man’s censure but reserve thy judgment. (Hamlet 1.3.69)
It may be tempting to believe the first thing one hears just because the source of the comment or opinion is vehement about promoting their side of the story and perhaps decorates it in such a way that makes it appear true. However, the legal term for this is “hearsay.” It is up to each and every person to listen to not just one, but many people’s stories and opinions, and form one’s own. No person is right and no person is wrong, just like how “fair is foul, and foul is fair.”
9. “Men in rage strike those that wish them best.” (Othello 2.3.207-208)
Much to the dismay of our loved ones, we unfortunately lash out on those we trust the most just because we know they will not judge and abandon us. Sometimes we just need a face for our problems to be angry at when we know very well that they are not at fault. Although we should do better as a society to stop our misguided anger, this is an undeniable truth. Perhaps if we start interpreting the lashing out of our loved ones against us as flattery that they trust us, we would do a lot better as a civilization.
10. “I understand a fury in your words But not your words.” (Othello 4.2.34-35)
Funny enough, this quotation follows its own advice. It is not really what one says that matters. Words are just words. Perhaps an American cannot understand German, or a German cannot understand Portuguese, but we all can understand emotions. It is all about reading in-between the lines, like in this quotation. Actions speak louder than words and just because someone says something, it does not mean that one means it, or if one thinks one means it, one may feel much differently inside.
11. “What’s past is prologue.” (The Tempest 2.1.219)
I chose this quotation to close the article because it is a piece of advice everyone must carry with them at all times. No matter how many difficulties have come one’s way, once they have happened, they have happened. A play is so much longer than a prologue, and one’s life is so much longer than one’s past. While one may not realize it, no matter how difficult life has been to one, these difficulties provide a new beginning, a “prologue” to someone’s life. If one keeps on watching, one will see that the play will go in a different direction that one originally thought.