Macbeth Key Quotes

Act One
Witches: Fair is foul and foul is fair
Captain: Brave Macbeth, well he deserves that name
Macbeth Banquo
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
Banquo Macbeth
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths
Macbeth aside
This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good. . .
. . . and nothing is
But what is not.
Macbeth aside
. Stars, hide your fires!
Let not light see my black and deep desires
Lady Macbeth soliloquy
Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top full
Of direst cruelty.
I do fear thy nature, it is too full of the milk of human kindness
Lady Macbeth Macbeth
Look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent undert.
Macbeth Lady Macbeth
We will proceed no further in this business:
Lady Macbeth Macbeth
Was the hope drunk,
Wherein you dressd yourself
Macbeth Lady Macbeth
I dare do all that may become a man;
Lady Macbeth Macbeth
And dashd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
Macbeth Lady Macbeth
Bring forth men-children only;
Macbeth Lady Macbeth
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
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Macbeth Key Quotes

Act Two
Macbeth soliloquy
Is this a dagger which I see before me?
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Macbeth Lady Macbeth
But wherefore could I not pronounce Amen
Lady Macbeth Macbeth
These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad
Macbeth Lady Macbeth
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Lady Macbeth Macbeth
Infirm of purpose!
Macbeth soliloquy
Will all Neptunes ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand?
Lady Macbeth Macbeth
My hands are of your colour, but I shame
To wear a heart so white.
Lennox Macbeth
The night has been unruly: (links to idea of pathetic
fallacy)

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Macbeth Key Quotes

Act Three
Banquo
Thou hast it now-King, Cawdor, Glamis, all as the Weird Women promised,
and I fear thou played'st most foully for 't.
Act 3 Scene 1
This relates to "Fair is foul, and foul is fair".
Macbeth
We here our bloody cousins are bestowed in England and Ireland, not
confessing their cruel parricide, fillling their hearers with strange invention.
Act 3 Scene 1
The "bloody cousins" are Malcolm and Donalbain. "Parricide" is the same as
Patricide. "Strange invention" means lies.
Macbeth
To be thus in nothing, but to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo stick deep,
and in his royalty of nature reigns that which would be feared.
Act 3 Scene 1
When he says "thus" he means king. Macbeth shows that he distrusts Banquo.
Macbeth
There is none but he whose being I do fear; and under him my genius is
rebuked, as it is said Mark Antony's was by Caesar.
Act 3 Scene 1
Macbeth fears that Banquo will challenge him. Allusion to Octavius Caesar.
Macbeth
And bade them speak to him. Then, prophet-like, they hailed him father to a
line of kings. Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown and put a barren
scepter in my grip, Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand, no son of
mine succeeding.
Act 3 Scene 1
First line is a reference to Banquo's talk to witches in Act 1. "And put a barren
scepter..." is phallic imagery.
Macbeth
If 't be so, for Banquo's issue have I filed my mind; For them the gracious
Duncan have I murdered, put rancors in the vessel of my peace only for
them, and mine eternal jewel given to the common enemy of man to make
them kings, the seeds of Banquo kings. Rather than so, come fate into the list,
and champion me to th' utterance.
Act 3 Scene 1
Macbeth is going mad because all he has done is so Banquo's descendants
will be kings. "Mine eternal jewel" is a metaphor for his soul. "Rather than so,
come fate into the list"- Macbeth calls upon fate=apostrophe
Macbeth
I am in blood stepped so far that should I wade no more, returning were as
tedious as go oer

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Macbeth Key Quotes

Act Four
Macbeth
From this moment
The very firstlings of my heart shall be
The firstlings of my hand.
Ross
Alas, poor country, almost afraid to know itself
Macbeth
The castle of Macduff I will surprise
Macbeth
Tell me, if your art / Can tell so much, shall Banquo's issue ever / Reign in this
kingdom?

Act Five
Lady M
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!
Macbeth (on hearing of his wifes death)
Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no
more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying
nothing.
Macbeth
"They have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly, But, bearlike, I must
fight the course.
Macbeth
Ill die with harness on my back
Malcolm
Of this dead butcher and his fiend like queen.