Macbeth Quotes

"And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence."
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Terms in this set (15)
"And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence."
Banquo to Macbeth (saying the witches might have given them the predictions to make them do harm/evil)
"Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness."
LMB to herself (fears MB is too kind and not evil enough to make his kingship happen NOW)
Come you spirits tend.... unsex me....
LMB prayer to evil spirits, weakness and feminist taken out of her
Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't
LMB to MB (warning him to keep his murderous intentions hidden and seem nice)
I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, and falls on the other.
MB to himself (saying there's no reason to kill Duncan except his own self ambition)
"Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand?"
MB to himself (thinks this vision is pointing him to Duncan's room to murder him)
Methought I heard a voice cry 'sleep no more!'
MB to LMB (after he has killed King Duncan his conscience won't let him sleep)
Thou hast it all - king, Cawdor, Glamis, all as the Weird Women promised, and I fear thou played'st most foully for it"
Banquo to himself (he is afraid Macbeth has played foully to attain the crown)
To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo stick deep.
MB to himself (to be king is nothing.... unless he can be king without a threat of being overthrown or killed)
Naught's had, all's spent, where our desire is got without content. Tis safer to be that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
LMB to herself (she is expressing her discontent. They have the throne but are constantly worried about how they will be taken off of it)
I am in blood stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er.MB to LMB (he is so far into this scheme of taking the throne that going back is as terrible as going forward)Whither should I fly? I have done this no harm. But I remember now, I am in this earthly world where to do harm is often laundable, to do good sometimes accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas, do I put up that womanly defense to say I have done no harm?Lady Macduff to herself (why should she leave when she has done no wrong? she remembers that doesn't always count in this world of evil, where wrong is often rewarded and good is seen as foolish)out, damned spot, out, i say! one. two...yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? (5.1.37-42)LMB says this to herself while sleepwalking (she can't get Duncan's blood off her hands and feels guilty especially for pushing MB into this mess)Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time....out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.MB- Seyton is in the room, but MB is really saying this to himself. Life is short and meaningless (he has lost hope/purpose)"Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, and thou opposed, being of no woman born, yet I will try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield: lay on, Macduff, and damned be him that first cries 'Hold, enough'.MB to Macduff (MB has decided to fight to his last breath, even though the prophecies have failed him and death is imminent.