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
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the folly and irrationality of human behavior.
In this quote from Shakespeare's play 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', the speaker is commenting on the ridiculousness of human actions and the often foolish decisions people make in love and life. It evokes a sense of irony about the nature of humanity, suggesting that people frequently act without wisdom or foresight, often leading to chaos and misunderstandings.
Themes
FoolsMortalsHumanityFollyWisdom
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about human behavior, one might say, 'As Shakespeare wisely pointed out, Lord, what fools these mortals be!'
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
Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.
George Bernard ShawRead
Perhaps it is even a good idea to stir up a rivalry between conceptual and imaginative activity. In any case, one will encounter nothing but disappointments if he intends to make them cooperate. The image can not provide matter for a concept. By giving stability to the image, the concept would stifle its life.
Gaston BachelardRead
The perplexity of life arises from there being too many interesting things in it for us to be interested properly in any of them.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.
George Bernard ShawRead
In one word, this ideal is that you are divine.
Swami VivekanandaRead
History has blessed us with all the freedom and advantages of multiculturalism. But it has also blessed us, because of the accident of our origins, with the linguistic unity that brings a critically needed cohesion to a nation as diverse, multiracial and multiethnic as America. Why gratuitously throw away that priceless asset? How mindless to call the desire to retain it 'racist.
Charles KrauthammerRead