Actually, Shakespeare.
The lines everyone can quote — and what Shakespeare actually wrote. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio. Lay on, Macduff. With play, act, and speaker for every one.
- "A plague on both your houses.""A plague o' both your houses!"Mercutio — Romeo and Juliet, III.i
What changes The elision "o'" for "on" is metrical. Modern quotation expands it, losing the spat, dying Mercutio's clipped venom.
- "A pound of flesh.""Nearest his heart: those are the very words."Portia — The Merchant of Venice, IV.i
What changes The phrase "pound of flesh" is Shakespeare's; it became idiom for an unreasonable demand. The qualifier "nearest his heart" — which makes the bond lethal — is routinely dropped.
- "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.""That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet."Juliet — Romeo and Juliet, II.ii
What changes The compressed version loses the subject ("that which we call a rose") and with it Juliet's argument — that the name is the problem, not the thing named.
- "Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well.""Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio."Hamlet — Hamlet, V.i
What changes The direct address to Horatio grounds the whole graveyard soliloquy. "Knew him well" is more English but loses the intimate audience.
- "All that glitters is not gold.""All that glisters is not gold."The Prince of Morocco — The Merchant of Venice, II.vii
What changes "Glister" was the Elizabethan form; "glitter" replaced it in everyday English by 1800. Editions differ on whether to modernise.
- "All that glitters is not gold.""All that glisters is not gold; / Often have you heard that told."The Prince of Morocco (reading) — The Merchant of Venice, II.vii
What changes Inside a casket's scroll — a lesson in disguise. Quoting the first line alone drops the acknowledgement that this is a rehash of already-known wisdom.
- "All the world's a stage.""All the world's a stage, / And all the men and women merely players."Jaques — As You Like It, II.vii
What changes The famous opening is only the setup for Jaques's Seven Ages of Man speech. Quoting it alone drops the bleak comparison that follows.
- "Beware the Ides of March.""Beware the ides of March."Soothsayer — Julius Caesar, I.ii
What changes Correctly quoted but often overdramatised — Shakespeare writes it as a quiet warning shouted over a crowd. Film adaptations tend to stage it as prophecy incarnate.
- "Brevity is the soul of wit.""Since brevity is the soul of wit, / And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, / I will be brief."Polonius — Hamlet, II.ii
What changes Polonius says this while launching into a famously long-winded speech. The irony is the whole point — Shakespeare writes him into immediate self-contradiction.
- "Bubble bubble, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble.""Double, double, toil and trouble; / Fire burn and cauldron bubble."Three Witches — Macbeth, IV.i
What changes Persistent misquote even among actors. "Double" doubles the sorcery; "bubble" just describes the cauldron. The rhyme ("trouble/bubble") pulls the mishearing toward itself.
- "Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.""Double, double, toil and trouble."Three Witches — Macbeth, IV.i
What changes "Double" scans with "trouble" — the rhyme is the whole point. The misremembered "bubble" fits the cauldron imagery but breaks the meter.
- "By the pricking of my thumbs, something evil this way comes.""By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes."Second Witch — Macbeth, IV.i
What changes "Wicked" is the specific word — morally bad, purposefully harmful. "Evil" is a broader synonym that softens the line's sting.
- "Cowards die many times before their deaths.""Cowards die many times before their deaths; / The valiant never taste of death but once."Caesar — Julius Caesar, II.ii
What changes The couplet is balanced — cowards vs. valiant. Quoting the first half alone keeps the moral but loses the parallel Shakespeare built in.
- "Discretion is the better part of valour.""The better part of valour is discretion."Falstaff — Henry IV, Part 1, V.iv
What changes Falstaff, the play's coward, is rationalising his cowardice. Shakespeare's phrasing makes valour the subject; the inverted modern form reads like a general maxim.
- "Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar.""Et tu, Brute? — Then fall, Caesar!"Caesar — Julius Caesar, III.i
What changes The stage dash matters. Caesar is not narrating his own death; he is interrupted by the recognition of Brutus, then consents to his end.
- "Fair is foul, and foul is fair.""Fair is foul, and foul is fair: / Hover through the fog and filthy air."Three Witches — Macbeth, I.i
What changes The couplet is the witches' thesis statement. The second line anchors it in physical setting; popular quotation severs it from the weird moorland where the play begins.
- "Frailty, thy name is woman.""Frailty, thy name is woman! — / A little month, or ere those shoes were old…"Hamlet — Hamlet, I.ii
What changes Hamlet is railing against his mother's remarriage — a specific rant, not a universal statement. Quoting the line alone converts personal grievance into misogynistic doctrine.
- "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!""Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; / I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him."Mark Antony — Julius Caesar, III.ii
What changes The opening is the hook; the second clause sets up the whole rhetorical trick of the speech. Antony claims neutrality then delivers a eulogy.
- "Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.""…a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing."Macbeth — Macbeth, V.v
What changes Quoted alone, the line is nihilism. In context, it's an idiot's tale — a specific kind of noise, not a cosmic verdict.
- "Gilding the lily.""To gild refined gold, to paint the lily."Lord Salisbury — King John, IV.ii
What changes Shakespeare never combined "gild" and "lily" — the combined idiom is a 19th-century compression. The original is a list of four impossible embellishments.
- "Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.""Good night, sweet prince: / And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!"Horatio — Hamlet, V.ii
What changes Horatio says the line to the dying Hamlet. Repurposed as a general farewell, it reads gentle; in its place, it is elegiac and specific to Hamlet.
- "Heavy lies the head that wears the crown.""Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."King Henry IV — Henry IV, Part 2, III.i
What changes "Heavy" is the common modern paraphrase; Shakespeare wrote "uneasy." One is physical, the other emotional — small word, different argument.
- "Hell is empty and all the devils are here.""Hell is empty / And all the devils are here."Ariel (reporting) — The Tempest, I.ii
What changes Correctly quoted; often attributed to Shakespeare generally rather than Ariel specifically. The context is Ariel narrating the shipwreck — tabloid drama, not a world-weary maxim.
- "Hoisted by his own petard.""For 'tis the sport to have the engineer / Hoist with his own petard."Hamlet — Hamlet, III.iv
What changes A "petard" was a small explosive — the engineer who lit it could be blown up ("hoist") by it. Modern "hoisted by" misses that it means blown up, not lifted up.
- "If music be the food of love, play on.""If music be the food of love, play on; / Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, / The appetite may sicken, and so die."Orsino — Twelfth Night, I.i
What changes The famous first line sounds romantic. The full passage is about being so gorged on love that you go off it — the opposite of the sentimental reading.
- "Lead on, Macduff!""Lay on, Macduff, and damn'd be him that first cries "Hold, enough!""Macbeth — Macbeth, V.viii
What changes "Lay on" is Elizabethan for "strike." Macbeth is inviting combat, not asking for directions. The modern misquote reads as polite; the original is defiant.
- "Methinks the lady doth protest too much.""The lady doth protest too much, methinks."Gertrude — Hamlet, III.ii
What changes Word order carries weight in iambic pentameter. Moving "methinks" to the front changes a hedged observation into a presumptuous one.
- "My kingdom for a horse!""A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"Richard III — Richard III, V.iv
What changes The repetition is the drama. Richard cries out three times — the fourth repetition is the bargain. Shortened quotation loses the urgency of a king on a battlefield without a mount.
- "Now is the winter of our discontent. (standalone, meaning "times are bad")""Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York."Richard — Richard III, I.i
What changes Quoted alone, the line means the opposite of what Richard says. The full sentence announces the END of the winter — a glorious summer has arrived.
- "Once more into the breach, dear friends.""Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more."King Henry V — Henry V, III.i
What changes "Unto," not "into" — the preposition is archaic and the difference is small, but the second "once more" is the emphatic kicker popular quotation drops.
- "Out, damn spot!""Out, damned spot! Out, I say!"Lady Macbeth — Macbeth, V.i
What changes "Damned" (two syllables in Elizabethan pronunciation) is the past participle doing real work — Lady Macbeth sees the blood as cursed, not just stubborn.
- "Parting is such sweet sorrow.""Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow, / That I shall say good night till it be morrow."Juliet — Romeo and Juliet, II.ii
What changes The famous line is part of a couplet — the rhyme "sorrow/morrow" completes it. Orphaning the first half makes it sound declarative rather than lovestruck.
- "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.""Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em."Malvolio (reading) — Twelfth Night, II.v
What changes Quoted correctly, routinely mis-sourced to "greatness" aphorism collections. Malvolio is reading a forged letter — the whole passage is a prank.
- "Something evil this way comes.""By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."Second Witch — Macbeth, IV.i
What changes The full couplet is a prophecy; cropping it loses the "pricking of my thumbs" superstition that signals it. Ray Bradbury's novel fixed the short form in pop memory.
- "The be-all and end-all.""That but this blow / Might be the be-all and the end-all here."Macbeth — Macbeth, I.vii
What changes Shakespeare's coinage — in the original, the hyphens are in specific positions. Modern compounds drop the second "the," turning a hypothetical into a cliché.
- "The course of true love never runs smooth.""The course of true love never did run smooth."Lysander — A Midsummer Night's Dream, I.i
What changes Present tense for past: the eternal truism is Shakespeare's specific past-tense observation generalised. Small shift, big change in register.
- "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.""The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."Dick the Butcher — Henry VI, Part 2, IV.ii
What changes Correctly quoted, routinely mis-attributed. Dick is a rebel planning tyranny — lawyers are the defenders of law. The line is a compliment, not a critique.
- "The lady doth protest too much.""The lady doth protest too much, methinks."Gertrude — Hamlet, III.ii
What changes "Methinks" frames the whole line as cautious opinion. Drop it and a hedged observation becomes a flat accusation.
- "The milk of human kindness.""Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o' the milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way."Lady Macbeth — Macbeth, I.v
What changes Lady Macbeth is complaining — the milk-of-kindness is a flaw, not a virtue. Popular use inverts her meaning by praising what she was criticising.
- "The quality of mercy is not strained.""The quality of mercy is not strain'd, / It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven / Upon the place beneath."Portia — The Merchant of Venice, IV.i
What changes Portia's speech is a 20-line argument for clemency. Quoting one line makes it sound aphoristic; in context, it is a legal appeal disguised as poetry.
- "The rest is silence.""The rest is silence. [Dies.]"Hamlet — Hamlet, V.ii
What changes Correctly quoted; the stage direction is the point. The line is Hamlet's death, not a life-philosophy.
- "There's something rotten in the state of Denmark.""Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."Marcellus — Hamlet, I.iv
What changes Adding "there's" softens the line into casual observation. Shakespeare's phrasing is cleaner — a flat pronouncement, not a hedge.
- "To be, or not to be — that is the question.""To be, or not to be, that is the question: / Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune…"Hamlet — Hamlet, III.i
What changes The short form is correctly quoted — but the popular read is wrong. "The question" isn't whether to exist; it's whether to endure or to fight.
- "To take arms against a sea of troubles.""Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them."Hamlet — Hamlet, III.i
What changes The mixed metaphor — fighting a sea — is famous and often mocked. The second line resolves it ("by opposing end them"): the arms, not the sea, are the real target.
- "To thine own self be true.""This above all: to thine own self be true, / And it must follow, as the night the day, / Thou canst not then be false to any man."Polonius — Hamlet, I.iii
What changes The quoted fragment sounds profound. The full passage is Polonius — a character Shakespeare uses for pompous platitudes. Context inverts the meaning.
- "To thine own self be true.""This above all: to thine own self be true."Polonius — Hamlet, I.iii
What changes Polonius is giving advice to his son Laertes. "This above all" frames the line as the culmination of a list of fatherly dos and don'ts — all of it generic.
- "We are such stuff as dreams are made of.""We are such stuff / As dreams are made on."Prospero — The Tempest, IV.i
What changes "On," not "of." "Made on" is an Elizabethan construction — like "made of" but with the preposition shifted. Modern paraphrase changes the grammar and flattens the line.
- "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.""We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; / For he to-day that sheds his blood with me / Shall be my brother."King Henry V — Henry V, IV.iii
What changes The St Crispin's Day speech peaks with the three-beat opening. Quoting it alone makes "band of brothers" sound like a title; Shakespeare wrote it as the start of a longer promise.
- "What fools these mortals be!""Lord, what fools these mortals be!"Puck — A Midsummer Night's Dream, III.ii
What changes The "Lord" is an exclamation, not an address — Puck is amused, not praying. Without it, the line reads colder than Shakespeare wrote it.
- "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?""O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"Juliet — Romeo and Juliet, II.ii
What changes "Wherefore" means "why," not "where." Juliet isn't looking for him; she's asking why he has to be a Montague. Modern film adaptations routinely stage her looking around.
Other lines people get wrong.
Famous misquotes beyond Shakespeare — film, song, and history.