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
It is the stars, The stars above us, govern our conditions.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our circumstances are influenced by larger forces beyond our control.
In this quote, Shakespeare reflects on the idea that human life and its conditions are not solely determined by our actions, but are also shaped by external influences, represented metaphorically by the stars. This perspective encourages a contemplation of fate, destiny, and the role of higher powers in our lives, suggesting that some aspects of our existence are predetermined or governed by forces beyond our understanding.
Themes
StarsGovernConditionsFateDestinyInfluence
In practice
Example use cases
When talking about the unpredictability of life in a graduation speech.
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
Our Constitution is in actual operation; everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Benjamin FranklinRead
A belief is only a thought you continue to think. A belief is nothing more than a chronic pattern of thought, and you have the ability - if you try even a little bit - to begin a new pattern, to tell a new story, to achieve a different vibration, to change your point of attraction.
Esther HicksRead
The war is relentless: it puts the alternative in a ruthless relief: either to perish, or to catch up with the advanced countries and outdistance them, too, in economic matters.
Vladimir LeninRead
We have no higher life that is really apart from other people. It is by imagining them that our personality is built up; to be without the power of imagining them is to be a low-grade idiot.
Charles Horton CooleyRead
Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts. (Leonard Shelby, Memento)
Christopher NolanRead
There are no secrets better kept than the secrets everybody guesses.
George Bernard ShawRead