Famous quotes, actually explained
The line you half-remember, the one your teacher wrote on the board, the one you just Googled at midnight — here it is in plain English, with who said it, what it means, and the themes it opens onto. 29 of literature's most-searched quotes, free.
William Shakespeare
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.” “Out, damned spot! out, I say!” “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?” “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” “To be, or not to be: that is the question.” “This above all: to thine own self be true.” “Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.” “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock The meat it…” “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.” “What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” “Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow.” “Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!” “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” “All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players.” “We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.”