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" (5.3.25-28).
William ShakespeareRead
God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We are responsible for the persona we project to the world, as opposed to our true selves.
This quote from Shakespeare suggests that while God creates our physical appearance, it is our choices and actions that shape our identity and how we are perceived by others. It emphasizes the idea that individuals often wear masks or create facades to fit into societal expectations or to hide their true selves, which reflects on the nature of authenticity and self-perception.
Themes
IdentityAuthenticitySelf-PerceptionFacadeMask
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about societal pressure, this quote can illustrate how people often feel the need to conform.
More from William Shakespeare
All quotes βLove bears it out even to the edge of doom.
William ShakespeareRead
Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.
William ShakespeareRead
Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it; the one brings fuel, the other blows it till it burns clear.
William ShakespeareRead
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
William ShakespeareRead
Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
William ShakespeareRead
Similar quotes
You can't have something without nothing.
Alan WattsRead
I am afraid of falling into hopeless despair, over my wasted life, and I am still not sure how it happened.
Margaret AtwoodRead
Nothing brings out the lower traits of human nature like office-seeking. Men of good character and impulses are betrayed by it into all sorts of meanness.
Rutherford B. HayesRead
Sometimes negative news does come out, but it is often exaggerated and manipulated to spread scandal. Journalists sometimes risk becoming ill from coprophilia and thus fomenting coprophagia: which is a sin that taints all men and women, that is, the tendency to focus on the negative rather than the positive aspects.
Pope FrancisRead
They talk of a man betraying his country, his friends, his sweetheart. There must be a moral bond first. All a man can betray is his conscience.
Joseph ConradRead
That was interesting, to find that it wasn't hunger that caused children to become bullies on the street. The bulliness was already in the child, and whatever the stakes were, they would find a way to act as they needed to act. β¦ Intelligence and education, which all these children had, apparently didn't make any important difference in human nature.
Orson Scott CardRead