Quotes from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“at Cambridge, a graduate in grammar in the late Middle Ages was required to demonstrate his pedagogical fitness by flogging a dull or recalcitrant boy.”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“Falstaff something roughly similar—a gentleman sinking into mire—but darker and deeper: a debauched genius; a fathomlessly cynical, almost irresistible confidence man; a diseased, cowardly, seductive, lovable monster; a father who cannot be trusted.”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“A sentence is but a cheverel glove to a good wit,” quips the clown Feste in Twelfth Night,”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“Everyone understood that Latin learning was inseparable from whipping. One educational theorist of the time speculated that the buttocks were created in order to facilitate the learning of Latin.”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“Jaques’ vision in the same comedy of “the whining schoolboy with his satchel / And shining morning face, creeping like snail / Unwillingly to school”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“Can honour set-to a leg?” Falstaff asks, at the brink of battle.”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound?”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“What is honour? A word. What is in that word “honour”?”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“What is that “honour”? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it?”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“He that died o’Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ’Tis insensible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it.”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“I like not such grinning honour as Sir Walter hath. Give me life” (5.3.57–58).”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“Venus and Adonis is a spectacular display of Shakespeare’s signature characteristic, his astonishing capacity to be everywhere and nowhere, to assume all positions and to slip free of all constraints. The capacity depends upon a simultaneous, deeply paradoxical achievement of proximity and distance, intimacy and detachment.”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“book by the Spanish friar Luis de Granada, Of Prayer and Meditation. Printed in Paris in 1582, the book opened with a letter by the translator, Richard Harris, lamenting the rise of Schism, Heresy, Infidelity, and Atheism in England. These evils were dark signs that the world was nearing its end, Harris argued, and that Satan was frantically struggling to make a last demonic triumph.”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses,”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is?”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh?”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“The group shared a combination of extreme marginality and arrogant snobbishness.”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know. And so far will I trust thee,”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“No. Honour hath not skill in surgery, then? No.”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

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“Material force is the ultima ratio of political society everywhere. Arms alone can keep the peace." This was and still remains the axiom with men everywhere. The sword is not only the source of security; it is also the symbol of honor and glory; it is bliss and song.

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.