Recently, I saw Kenneth Branagh's version of Hamlet. I always thought that a good friend of mine was exaggerating Mr. Branagh's talents just a little bit. She wasn't. He is an extraordinary actor. Go see the movie. Get thee to a video store. Anyway, as I watched it, I decided that Hamlet must be the most quoted of all Shakespeare's plays. Enough of them were in sci-fi things, I think, to merit the inclusion of this list on my page. There are other lines that seemed familiar, but I could not say for certain if people were quoting Hamlet, or Hamlet was quoting something else. Note: when I list something as an axiom, it has fallen into normal, everyday usage. And with no futher ado...
| Quote | Where it's used |
| Frailty, thy name is woman (Act 1, Sc. 2) | Axiom |
| The apparel oft proclaims the man (Act 1, Sc. 3) | Axiom (The clothes make the man) |
| Neither a borrower nor a lender be (Act 1, Sc. 3) | Axiom |
| This above all: to thine own self be true (Act 1, Sc. 3) | Axiom |
| Angels and ministers of grace defend us! (Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 4) | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, McCoy (Spock) |
| Something is rotten in the state of Denmark (Act 1, Sc. 4) | Axiom |
| Though this be madness, yet there is method in't (Act 2, sc. 2) | Axiom (There's method in his madness) |
| What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! (Act 2, sc. 2) | Axiom, it's in at least one thesis paper that I know, and the musical play Hair in a song |
| I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw. (Act 2, sc. 2) | Axiom |
| The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king (Act 2, sc. 2) | Nearly anything about Shakespeare, or theater in general, will have "The play's the thing" somewhere. "Conscience of the King" was the title of an Original Series Star Trek episode about Kodos the Executioner. |
| To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes the calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely The pangs of depriz'd love, the law's delay the insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution To sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action. (Act 3, sc. 1) | Do I even have to say it? This soliloquy has been used or parodied in every two-bit Shakespeare knock off ever made. "To be or not to be," or some derivation thereof, seems to be everywhere in our society (in a sixth grade Junior Achievement project, our class used "To Tweet or not to Tweet" in ads for our product, Sweet Tweets). The line "that flesh is heir to" has become a bit of an axiom. "What Dreams May Come" is the title of a Robin Williams movie about the afterlife. "Mortal coil" is now a bit of a synonym for life, and it is always shuffled off. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (in addition, they quote "the undiscovered country" in the movie itself, and there's another "to be or not to be" when General Chang dies. What is it with Shakespeare and Star Trek?). "And makes us rather bear those ills we have/ Than fly to others that we know not of" and "conscience does make cowards of us all" are axioms in somewhat updated language... I'm sure I missed some in there, but I think you get the idea. |
| Get thee to a nunnery (Act 3, sc. 1) | Semi-axiom. Also, I used it at the top (kinda). |
| God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another (Act 3, sc. 1) | Axiom (two-faced) |
| O! woe is me (Act 3, sc. 1) | Name one person who hasn't said it. |
| The lady doth protest too much, methinks. (Act 3, sc. 2) | Axiom |
| Alas! poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; (Act 5, sc. 1) | Also part of every two bit Shakespeare rip-off, and another of the things everyone says when they think of Shakespeare. Sometimes wrongly presented as "Alas! poor Horatio, I knew him." |
| Sweets to the sweet. (Act 5, sc. 1) | Axiom |
| Dog will have his day (Act 5, sc. 1) | Axiom (Every dog shall have his day) |
| Good night, sweet prince (Act 5, sc. 2) | Used in an episode of Farscape. It may be an axiom. |
| Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead (Act 5, sc.2) | The title of a play by Tom Stoppard, about said characters. |
And that's it.
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