‘Words, words, words’: 11 great quotes from William Shakespeare

This April 23 the world — from Stratford-upon-Avon in England to Jaipur, Chicago and Mexico City — marks the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death.

We asked students, staff, faculty and grads from across the Concordia community to share the lines they can't forget.

If your favourite is on this list, please tweet it directly from the story. Or share another Bard quote with the hashtag #Shakespeare400. We'd love to hear from you!

I first read Macbeth when I was a teenager in high school. I loved the play and especially this scene. It started out with the three witches mouthing all sorts of nastiness before moving on to the prophecies above.

This was all a real eye-opener for an impressionable teenager and it stuck in my mind. How things have changed.

I have grown up and teach accounting at the John Molson School of Business (JMSB). If Macbeth were my text, I’d ask my students why Macbeth takes such an interest in the predictions of these “fantastical creatures.” Doesn’t he want to know who they are, how they know all these things, by what authority they speak? I would impress upon them that they must not let their emotions and ambitions undermine their judgment as Macbeth has.

Look what happened to him …

This quote and interchange feels timely. I think it speaks to the need to cultivate our best impulses, and the dire consequence of succumbing to our worst ones.

It’s a pitch-dark statement, a startling image and a stark warning.

Titania, Queen of the Faeries, is confronting King Oberon, her husband, with the many consequences of a toxic dispute that they have been having for some time.

There are so many things about these lines that astonish me: the poetic images; the delicious juicy, expressivity of the words (try saying them out loud!); and most of all, the fact that Shakespeare, who knew everything, seems to have predicted both the effects of global warming, and the fact that this would be a by-product of arrogant self-concern, a failure of communication and a collective neglect of our responsibility for the earth.

This is one of my favourites not only because it expresses something quite thought provoking in itself, but because in the play it is being spoken by someone (Caesar) who is pretty sure his death is coming soon, so it's got to be complicated for him.

Is he saying it because he's not afraid? To comfort his wife? Or because he's trying to steel himself against what is surely coming? Like most of Shakespeare's quotes, what excites me is imagining them in context. Ideas are simple and straightforward in a vacuum, but when spoken by a human being in a challenging situation, they become wonderfully complex. 

This summer, Repercussion Theatre will present an all-female version of Julius Caesar during the company’s Shakespeare-in-the-Park tour.

Thomas Walker: This sonnet stands out for me because it beautifully describes one's worst and best emotions and shows that ultimately, love is triumphant. Also, it makes my wife cry happy tears every time she reads it.

Elisabeth Faure: The Sonnets offer an autobiographical peek at Shakespeare’s time in Queen Elizabeth I’s court, during which he was involved in two tumultuous love affairs. One was with his “Fair Youth” (believed to be a young nobleman), the other with his “Dark Lady,” a seductive brunette.

Shakespeare’s sonnets suggest both relationships had their ups and downs, and the plot thickens when Shakespeare seems to discover his Youth and his Lady have been stepping out — with each other. Of course, the fact that this whole time Shakespeare also had a wife back in Stratford-upon-Avon would not have simplified things!

Collectively, the Sonnets cover the many facets of love and human emotion, from transcendent highs to the depths of despair. In the sonnet I chose, Shakespeare explores both.

I studied it at school 40 years ago and it is one of the few things that stuck. (Along with clints and grikes in limestone erosion!)

Norberts Muncs: These lines are spoken by Polonius to his son Laertes, who is departing for France. There is a direct link to my association with Loyola College and Concordia. Ever since I appeared in Hamlet (as Guildenstern) here at Loyola in 1972, under the direction of Marc Gervais, I have tried to live my life with this adage in mind. 

Alison Bowie: I was in the first semester of my first year in undergrad, studying history at Queen's University. This is where my parents went to school, my aunts and uncles, my grandparents — the whole family. My birthday is mid-December, so right in the middle of the exam period. We had a small dinner at home to celebrate.

My parents got me cross-country skis as my gift, along with a variety of Queen's paraphernalia: T-shirt, calendar, sweatpants, binder. They were so proud of me. Well, stress and 17-turning-18 angst kicked in. I started crying, a lot, and screaming that they didn't know me at all — and that I didn't even like skiing (which isn't the case, I actually do like it, more so now than 12 years ago when this happened).

They were shocked and didn't know how to respond. A few days later, after the fog had cleared and my exams were over, we went out for dinner. After dessert, my dad pushed a small envelope across the table at me.

In it was a card. My dad, a playwright and brilliant man, wrote an entire apology using lines of Shakespeare dialogue.

Next, my mother slid a small box across the table. In it was a necklace with "to thine own self me true" engraved on it. This time, tears of joy were streaming down my cheeks. I still have that necklace. 

I like this passage because it conveys the beauty of summer and the beauty of humanity. 

Shakespeare has King Henry say this to his troops before the battle of Agincourt, when they were facing the almost insurmountable forces of the French. To me, this speech reaches far back in time to the battle of Troy and the epic heroes, who call upon the loyalty of their followers and their desire of establishing their reputation on the battlefield.

It is the creation of a private world within a public one, the world of male alliances, honour and dependency. It is also an example of the power and influence of words, which can affect how an individual thinks and acts.

Sheer words, by one individual, changed the anticipated outcome of a battle so that a relatively small force, weakened by disease and far from home, overcame and thoroughly defeated a force much larger in numbers. It just goes to show how powerful words can be in the voice of a leader. Simple words, with a powerful effect.  

This line has always resonated with me, not only because of my natural lack of sleep, but because of the very idea that one can "die to idleness," one can refuse a life of dozy workaday comfort, and instead take on the responsibility of living fully, even if it means to die several symbolic deaths, transcending oneself, reinventing oneself.

There are so many quotable lines from Shakespeare that many of them are so common now that it seems like a cliché to cite them. It just goes to show how much of an impact he has had on the Western imagination. 

These are Cleopatra's words just after Antony's death. Cleopatra ostensibly talks about Antony's stature as soldier — indeed as a yardstick for all soldiers.

With him gone, there will be no standards left for others to measure themselves against. But what comes across even more strongly is the sense that to lose Antony is to find herself all of a sudden — and forever — in a world that will never be more than banal and insipid, an endless succession of drab and tedious days.

I cannot think of a more succinct and more moving expression of crushing grief than these apparently so simple lines.

Tweet your favourite lines by William Shakespeare directly from this story. Or share another quote with the hashtag #Shakespeare400. We'd love to hear from you!