Quotes

How to select, understand, and use Shakespeare quotations without turning them into floating slogans.

A famous line changes when restored to its speaker and scene. “To be, or not to be” is not a general motivational phrase but part of Hamlet’s private reasoning about suffering, action, and death.

Essential lines to locate

“The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”Hamlet, 2.2
“Out, damned spot!”Macbeth, 5.1
“The quality of mercy is not strain’d.”The Merchant of Venice, 4.1
“We are such stuff / As dreams are made on.”The Tempest, 4.1

Lineation and wording can vary slightly by edition. Cite the act, scene, and—when your edition supplies them—line numbers.