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
Tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age, Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburdened crawl toward death.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the desire to relinquish life's burdens and responsibilities as one approaches the end of life.
In this quote, Shakespeare contemplates the natural inclination to pass on the weight of life's responsibilities to younger generations as one ages. He suggests that as individuals grow older, they often wish to shed their cares and let the youth take on the challenges of life while they themselves accept the inevitability of death, moving forward with a lighter heart and mind.
Themes
AgingBurdenDeathResponsibilityLifeYouth
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about the wisdom of aging and the importance of guiding the younger generation.
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
The feeling about a soldier is, when all is said and done, he wasn't really going to do very much with his life anyway. The example usually is: he wasn't going to compose Beethoven's Fifth.
Kurt VonnegutRead
This freedom, this liberty, this beautiful and terrible thing, needful to man as air, usable as earth.
Robert HaydenRead
In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.
Benjamin FranklinRead
I don't know. I don't know at all. And that's what's frightening the life out of me. To have no idea.
Agatha ChristieRead
How much harm does a company have to do before we question its right to exist?
Paul HawkenRead
America is made of different races and different religions, but we're all co-travelers on the spaceship Earth and must respect and help each other along the way.
Stan LeeRead