50 Amazing William Shakespeare Quotes from Hamlet

William Shakespeare, otherwise known as ‘The Bard’ born in Stratford-upon-Avon on 26th April 1564, wrote 38 plays and 154 sonnets, before passing away at the age of 52. ‘Hamlet‘ (Officially ‘The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark’ ) was Shakespeare’s longest play at a whopping 30,577 words , but we promise to keep our selection of Quotes from Hamlet nailed down to only the most interesting !

Quotes from Hamlet

“Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence.”
Quotes from Hamlet – Hamlet, I, iii, 121

“Things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!”
Hamlet (1601) act 1, sc. 2, l. 136

“Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul.”
Hamlet (1601) act 3, sc. 4, l. 142

“There’s ne’er a villain dwelling in all Denmark, But he’s an arrant knave.”
Hamlet Quotes – Hamlet, I, v, 123

“There’s such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would.”
Hamlet (1601) act 4, sc. 5, l. [123]

“I do not set my life at a pin’s fee;
And for my soul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself?”
Hamlet (1601) act 1, sc. 4, l. 65

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
Hamlet, I, iv, 90

“It is not, nor it cannot come to good;
But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue!
Hamlet (1601) act 1, sc. 2, l. 158

“Come, my coach! Good-night, ladies; good-night, sweet ladies; good-night, good-night.”
Quotes from Hamlet (1601) act 4, sc. 5, l. [72]

“Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better.”
Hamlet (1601) act 3, sc. 4, l. 31

“The glowworm shows the matin to be near,
And ‘gins to pale his uneffectual fire.”
Hamlet, I, v, 89

“I once did hold it, as our statists do,
A baseness to write fair.”
Hamlet, V, ii, 33

“Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d.”
Hamlet Quotes – Hamlet, III, i, 89

“Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine.”
Hamlet [1600-1601], I, i, 153

“A politician… one that would circumvent God.”
Hamlet, V, i, 84

“I am but mad north-northwest: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.”
Hamlet, II, ii, 405

“Find out the cause of this effect,
Or rather say, the cause of this defect,
For this effect defective comes by cause.”
Quotes from Hamlet, II, ii, 101

“That he is mad, ’tis true; ’tis true ’tis pity; And pity ’tis ’tis true.”
Hamlet, II, ii, 97

“Leave her to heaven,
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her.”
Hamlet, I, v, 86

“One fair daughter and no more,
The which he loved passing well.”
Hamlet, II, ii, 435

“Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.”
Hamlet Quotes – Hamlet (1601) act 2, sc. 2, l. [195]

“Why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on.”
Hamlet [1600-1601], I, ii, 143

“He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone,
At his head a grass-green turf;
At his heels a stone.”
Hamlet (1601) act 4, sc. 5, l. [29]

“Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.”
Hamlet, V, i, 73

“Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric;
I am justly killed with my own treachery.”
Hamlet (1601) act 5, sc. 2, l. [320]

“I thought thy bride-bed to have deck’d, sweet maid, And not have strew’d thy grave.”
Hamlet, V, i, 267

“O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.”
Hamlet (1601), II, ii

“How should I your true love know
From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff,
And his sandal shoon.”
Hamlet (1601) act 4, sc. 5, l. [23]