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
Have you not a moist eye, a dry hand, a yellow cheek, a white beard, a decreasing leg, an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken, your wind short, your chin double, your wit single, and every part about you blasted with antiquity?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the inevitability of aging and the physical decline that comes with it.
William Shakespeare's quote highlights the various signs of aging that affect the body and spirit. Through a series of vivid descriptions, he prompts the listener to acknowledge the physical changes they may be experiencing, suggesting that aging is an inescapable part of life that brings about reflection on one's vitality and youthful vigor compared to their current state.
Themes
AgingReflectionDeclineVitalityMortalityAntiquity
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on aging, one could use this quote to illustrate the physical changes we all face over time.
More from William Shakespeare
All quotes →Love 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
There is timing in the whole life of the warrior, in his thriving and declining, in his harmony and discord. Similarly, there is timing in the Way of the merchant, in the rise and fall of capital. All things entail rising and falling timing. You must be able to discern this.
Miyamoto MusashiRead
The reason can give nothing at all Like the response to desire.
Wallace StevensRead
If I have any worth, it is to live my life for God.
Saint PatrickRead
That however the brains and abilities of men may differ, their stomachs are essentially the same.
F. Scott FitzgeraldRead
Christians, indeed, have a special obligation not to forget how great and how inextinguishable the human proclivity for violence is, or how many victims it has claimed, for they worship a God who does not merely take the part of those victims, but who was himself one of them, murdered by the combined authority and moral prudence of the political, religious, and legal powers of human society.
David Bentley HartRead
To correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy and from positive enmity among strangers, as nations or as individuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization.
Abraham LincolnRead