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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the permanence of guilt and the impossibility of absolution after committing serious wrongdoing.
In this quote, Shakespeare presents a profound contemplation on the nature of guilt and morality. The speaker questions whether even the vastness of Neptune's ocean could cleanse them of the blood on their hands, symbolizing the heavy burden of their actions. It suggests that no external force can erase the internal stain of guilt; instead, one's misdeeds only deepen their remorse, transforming the purity of nature into something dark and tainted. This illustrates the theme that some actions leave lasting scars on the soul.
Themes
GuiltRedemptionMoralityConsequencesAction
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the consequences of actions, this quote can emphasize the weight of guilt in moral philosophy.
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
Those who shun the whimsy of things will experience rigor mortis before death.
Tom RobbinsRead
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
Richard DawkinsRead
But lost chances are as much a part of life as chances taken, and a story cannot dwell on what might have been.
Paul AusterRead
I didn't have to scramble up and down the ladder from despair to euphoria anymore, trying to convince myself that life was either painful and terrible or joyous and wonderful. The simple truth was that life was both. p 214
Melody BeattieRead
The main cause is a pernicious falsehood propagated against her being, namely that she is inferior by her nature. Inferior in what? What has man ever done that woman, under the same advantages could not do?
Ernestine RoseRead
He reproduced himself with so much humble objectivity, with the unquestioning, matter of fact interest of a dog who sees himself in a mirror and thinks: there's another dog.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead