King Lear Quotes

Act 1

Though this knave came something saucily to the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair, there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged.
-Glouchester

Nothing will come of nothing.  Speak again.
-Lear

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
-Lear

Kill the physician, and the fee bestow upon the vile disease.
-Kent

Sith thus thou wilt appear, freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.
-Kent

I grow, I prosper.  Now, gods, stand up for bastards.
-Edmund

I should have been that I am, had the maidlienist star twinkled on my bastardizing.
-Edmund

Dost thou call me fool, boy?
All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born with.
-Lear/the Fool

Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to care for her frowning.
-the Fool

I am better than thou art now : I am a fool, thou art nothing.
-the Fool

If thou wert my Fool, I'd have thee beaten for being old before thy time.
How's that?
Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.
-the Fool/Lear

Act 2

What dost thou know me for?
A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, super-servicable, finical rogue; one-trunk inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition.
-Oswald/Kent

That's something yet : Edgar I nothing am.
-Edgar

O reason not the need!  Our basest beggars are in the poorest thing superfluous.
-Lear

Act 3

Who's there besides foul weather?
-Kent

Marry, here's grace and a codpiece; that's a wise man and a fool.
-the Fool

How dost, my boy? Art cold? I am cold myself.
-Lear

This prophecy Merlin shall make, for I live before his time.
-the Fool

True or false, it hath made thee earl of Glouchester.
-Cornwall

Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint stool.
-the Fool

We'll go to supper in the morning.
And I'll go to bed at noon.
-Lear/the Fool

Act 4

As flies to wanton boys, are we to th' gods, they kill us for their sport.
-Glouchester

There is a cliff whose high and bending head looks fearfully in the confined deep: bring me but to the very brim of it, and I'll repair the misery thou dost bear with something rich about me : from that place I shall no leading need.
-Glouchester

To thee a woman's services are due : my fool usurps my body.
-Goneril

If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor, preferment falls on him that cuts him off.
-Regan

Plate sin with gold, and the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; arm it in rags, a pygmy's straw does pierce it.
-Lear

Thou must be patient; we came crying hither...when we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.
-Lear

Far off, methinks, I hear the beaten drum.
-Edgar

Act 5

I had rather lose the battle than that sister should loosen him and me.
-Goneril

My state stands on me to defend, not to debate.
-Edmund

Men must endure their going hence, even as their coming hither.
-Edgar

Produce the bodies, be they alive or dead.
-Albany

I know when one is dead and when one lives; she's dead as earth.
-Lear

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, and thou no breath at all?  Thou'lt come no more, never, never, never, never, never.
-Lear

Break, heart; I prithee, break.
-Kent

I have a journey, sir, shortly to go; my master calls me, I must not say no.
-Kent

We that are young shall never see so much, nor live so long.
-Edgar

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