| Foul is foul and fair is fair | The witches |
| he unseam’d him from the nave to the chops | Sergeants description of macbeth’s defeat of Macdonwald |
| What, can the devil speak the truth? | Banquo’s reaction when Macbeth has been named Thane of Cawdor according to the witches prediction |
| Nothing in his life became him like leaving it | Malcolm’s description of the old Thane of Cawdors execution |
| Let not light see my black and deep desires | Macbeth wrestling with his desire to murder duncan |
| Yet I do fear thy nature, thy is to full of the milk of human kindness | Lady Macbeth concerned about Macbeth’s ability to commit a crime |
| Unsex me here | Lady Macbeth leaving her femininity behind in order to do what’s necessary for success |
| that but this blowMight be the be-all and the end-all—here,But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,We’ld jump the life to come | Macbeth trying to see if theirs away to evade killing Duncan |
| I have no spurTo prick the sides of my intent, but onlyVaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itselfAnd falls on the other | The many reasons Macbeth shouldn’t murder duncan |
| I have given suck, and knowHow tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me:I would, while it was smiling in my face,Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums,And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as youHave done to this. | Lady Macbeth scorning Macbeth for abandoning their plan |
| But screw your courage to the sticking place and we will not fail | Lady Macbeth challenging Macbeth to murder Duncan |
| Bring forth men-children only;For thy undaunted mettle should composeNothing but males. | Lady Macbeth praising Macbeth for being manly and following through |
| Is this a dagger I see before me, handle toward my hand? | Macbeth seeing visions on the way to murder Duncan |
| If he hadn’t reminded me of my father as he slept I would have done it myself | Lady Macbeth asserting her abilitys despite his resemblance to her father |
| Sleep no more Macbeth does murder sleep | Macbeth fears he will lose sleep forever due to his overwhelming guilt |
| Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,As the weird women promised, and I fearThou play’dst most foully for’t | Banquo reflects on Macbeth’s rise to power |
| Nought’s had, all’s spent,Where our desire is got without content;’Tis safer to be that which we destroyThan by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. | Lady Macbeth finds that although she may have succeeded it brings no peace |
| Come, seeling night,Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;And with thy bloody and invisible handCancel and tear to pieces that great bondWhich keeps me pale! Light thickens; and the crowMakes wing to the rooky wood:Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;While night’s black agents to their preys do rouse | Macbeth wishes for Banquo’s death |
| the times have been,That, when the brains were out, the man would die,And there an end, but now they rise again,With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,And push us from our stools: this is more strangeThan such a murder is. | Macbeth defends his fearful reaction to Banquo’s death |
| It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood | Macbeth reflecting that crime is pursuing him |
| I am in bloodStepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,Returning were as tedious as go o’er | Macbeth saying there is no turning back |
| All my pretty ones?Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?What, all my pretty chickens and their damAt one fell swoop? | Macduff astonished as he learns his family has been killef |
| But I must also feel it as a man | Macduff’s response to Malcolm’s advice to handle the news of his family’s slaughter “like a man.” |
| I have liv’d long enough: my way of lifeIs fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf;And that which should accompany old age,As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,I must not look to have; but, in their stead,Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. | Macbeth’s reaction to seeing troops coming to besiege the castle |
| Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,Raze out the written troubles of the brainAnd with some sweet oblivious antidoteCleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuffWhich weighs upon the heart? | Macbeth’s reaction to the doctors diagnosis of his wife |
| Macduff was from women’s womb untimely ripped | Macduff talking to Macbeth |
Important Macbeth Quotes
September 10, 2019