William Shakespeare Quotes About Madness

• Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.

  William Shakespeare

  Halloween, Math, Insanity

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 2, sc. 2, l. [211]

• Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.

  William Shakespeare

  Halloween, Power, Madness

  William Shakespeare (1996). “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Facing-pages Translation Into Contemporary English”, p.4, Lorenz Educational Publishers

• Oh, that way madness lies; let me shun that.

  William Shakespeare

  Lying, Memorable, Way

  'King Lear' (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. 21

• Like madness, is the glory of this life.

  William Shakespeare

  Madness, Glory

  "The Works of Shakespear: In Eight Volumes".

• Love is merely a madness.

  William Shakespeare

  Love Is, Happy Love, Madness

  William Shakespeare, Michael Hattaway (2000). “As You Like It”, p.145, Cambridge University Press

• O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!

  William Shakespeare

  God, Despair, Use

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 1, sc. 2, l. 129

• Love is . . . a madness most discreet

  William Shakespeare

  Love, Love Is, Madness

• I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.

  William Shakespeare

  Crazy, Wind, Mad

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 2, sc. 2, l. [405]

• Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do.

  William Shakespeare

  Dark, Love Is, House

  William Shakespeare, Michael Hattaway (2000). “As You Like It”, p.145, Cambridge University Press

• ROSS You must have patience, madam. LADY MACDUFF He had none: His flight was madness: when our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors.

  William Shakespeare

  Fear, Our Actions, Madness

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 4, sc. 2, l. 3

• O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad!

  William Shakespeare

  Sweet, Mad, Heaven

  'King Lear' (1605-6) act 1, sc. 5, l. [51]

• Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall, and a preserving sweet. *Here’s what love is: a smoke made out of lovers' sighs. When the smoke clears, love is a fire burning in your lover’s eyes. If you frustrate love, you get an ocean made out of lovers' tears. What else is love? It’s a wise form of madness. It’s a sweet lozenge that you choke on.*

  William Shakespeare

  Wise, Sweet, Ocean

• Love is merely a madness; and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do; and the reason why they are not so punish'd and cured is that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too.

  William Shakespeare

  Dark, Love Is, House

  William Shakespeare (1810). “As You Like it: A Comedy”, p.45

• Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs; being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears; what is it else? A madness most discreet, a choking gall, and a preserving sweet.

  William Shakespeare

  Sweet, Eye, Love Is

  William Shakespeare (1847). “The Plays of William Shakespeare”, p.148

• Lay not that flattering unction to your soul, That not your trespass but my madness speaks.

  William Shakespeare

  Soul, Madness, Speak

  William Shakespeare (2001). “Hamlet”, p.300, Classic Books Company

• But there is no such man; for, brother, men
  Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief
  Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it,
  Their counsel turns to passion, which before
  Would give preceptial medicine to rage,
  Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
  Charm ache with air and agony with words.

  William Shakespeare

  Strong, Brother, Grief

  William Shakespeare (2016). “The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works”, p.1491, Oxford University Press

• My wits begin to turn.

  William Shakespeare

  Madness, Wit, Turns

  William Shakespeare, Jay L. Halio (1992). “The Tragedy of King Lear”, p.178, Cambridge University Press

• For to define true madness,
  What is't but to be nothing else but mad?

  William Shakespeare

  Truth, Mad, Madness

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 2, sc. 2, l. 93

• How strange or odd some'er I bear myself,
  As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
  To put an antic disposition on.

  William Shakespeare

  Thinking, Acting, Actors

  William Shakespeare (2011). “Hamlet”, p.67, Simon and Schuster

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