Most quotable lines from hamlet

So as we all know hamlet has some really famous lines. I thought I’d make a post about the five I would consider most famous as well as an interpretation of them. 

  “Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry”

If you lend your money, you’re gonna come back empty handed of that same money as well as the person you lent it to. Lending and borrowing can ruin friendships, and borrowing specifically will make you live a life untrue  to yourself.

 “Brevity is the soul of wit”

This quote has been extremely famous. It refers to the timing and conciseness that one must use in writing or speech in order for it to successfully be witty.

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”

In essence, nothing is predetermined good or evil. The thoughts and perspective of the individual decides whether something is good or evil. Identifying something with either of those terms requires subjective thought. Peoples opinions decide if certain things are good or bad.

 “This above all: to thine own self be true”

“Be true to yourself” is a statement that is commonly spoken today. It can be good advice for just about any situation. If you’re writing a paper, if you’re giving a speech, if you’re trying to make new friends. Everyone always resorts back to this quote, because it really should be your main goal.

 “To be, or not to be: that is the question”

In this quote, Hamlet contemplates suicide. On a deeper level, he is really asking whether some of the situations that life puts us in have a right answer. Whether one should or should not do something, correlates to whether they will like their decision or not. Hamlet wonders whether it is right for him to even go on in a world where he is forced to avenge his father’s death.