William Shakespeare Quotes About Politics

• Woe to that land that's governed by a child.

  William Shakespeare

  Children, Land, Politics

  1592-3 Third Citizen. Richard III, act 2, sc.3, l.11.

• There is a law in each well-ordered nation
  To curb those raging appetites that are
  Most disobedient and refractory.

  William Shakespeare

  Law, Politics, Rage

  William Shakespeare, Anthony B. Dawson (2003). “Troilus and Cressida”, p.126, Cambridge University Press

• A politician... one that would circumvent God.

  William Shakespeare

  God, Politics, Politician

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 5, sc. 1, l. [84]

• Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

  William Shakespeare

  Memorable, Disease And Death, Political

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 1, sc. 4, l. 90

• Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne'er loved them.

  William Shakespeare

  Love, Men, People

  William Shakespeare (1998). “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, p.222, Oxford University Press, USA

• Tis much when sceptres are in children's hands,
  But more when envy breeds unkind division:
  There comes the ruin, there begins confusion.

  William Shakespeare

  Children, Hands, Envy

  William Shakespeare, Joseph Dennie, Isaac Reed, Samuel Johnson, William Richardson (1807). “King Henry VI, part 1. King Henry VI, part 2. King Henry VI, part 3”, p.84

• Get thee glass eyes, and like a scurvy politician, seem to see the things thou dost not.

  William Shakespeare

  Eye, Glasses, Society

  'King Lear' (1605-6) act 4, sc. 6, l. [175]

• O momentary grace of mortal men,
  Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!

  William Shakespeare

  Men, Grace, Religion

  William Shakespeare (2013). “The Wars of the Roses In Plain and Simple English: Includes Henry VI Parts 1 - 3 & Richard III, Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V”, p.854, BookCaps Study Guides

• When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner

  William Shakespeare

  Memorable, Play, Justice

  William Shakespeare, Andrew Gurr (2005). “King Henry V”, p.147, Cambridge University Press

• That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! It might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent God, might it not?

  William Shakespeare

  Skulls, Political, Cain

  Cross, William Shakespeare (1989). “William Shakespeare: The Complete Works”, p.705, Barnes & Noble Publishing

• Here was a Caesar! When comes such another?

  William Shakespeare

  Greatness, Politics

  'Julius Caesar' (1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [257]

• Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourg'd with rods,
  Nettled and stung with pismires[nettles], when I hear
  Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke.

  William Shakespeare

  Looks, Politics, Politician

  William Shakespeare, Joseph Dennie, Isaac Reed, Samuel Johnson, William Richardson (1806). “King Henry IV, part 1. King Richard II”, p.189

• Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit;
  All with me's meet that I can fashion fit.

  William Shakespeare

  Fashion, Land, Greed

  William Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate, Eric Rasmussen (2009). “King Lear”, p.43, Palgrave Macmillan

• I heard a bustling rumor like a fray,
  And the wind blows it from the Capitol.

  William Shakespeare

  Blow, Wind, Rumor

• The caterpillars of the commonwealth,
  Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away.

  William Shakespeare

  Weed, Politics, Pluck

  William Shakespeare, Roma Gill (1998). “Richard II”, p.45, Oxford University Press, USA

• I have been long a sleeper; but I trust
  My absence doth neglect no great design
  Which by my presence might have been concluded.

  William Shakespeare

  Long, Design, Politics

  William Shakespeare, Janis Lull (2009). “King Richard III”, p.142, Cambridge University Press

• I will keep where there is wit stirring, and leave the faction of fools.

  William Shakespeare

  Intelligence, Politics, Fool

  William Shakespeare (1857). “The Complete Works of Shakspeare, Revised from the Best Authorities : with a Memoir, and Essay on His Genius”, p.54

• I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny, who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered.

  William Shakespeare

  Power, Age, Politics

  William Shakespeare, Jay L. Halio (1992). “The Tragedy of King Lear”, p.114, Cambridge University Press

• My endeavors
  Have ever come too short of my desires.
  Yet filed with my abilities.

  William Shakespeare

  Desire, Politics, Too Short

  William Shakespeare (1842). “The Plays and Poems of Shakespeare: According to the Improved Text of Edmund Malone, Including the Latest Revisions, with a Life, Glossarial Notes, an Index, and One Hundred and Seventy Illustrations”, p.252

• I would with such perfection govern, sir,
  T'excel the golden age.

  William Shakespeare

  Government, Perfection, Age

  William Shakespeare (1868). “The Tempest”, p.25

• I can give the loser leave to chide.

  William Shakespeare

  Loss, Giving, Speech

  William Shakespeare (2003). “Henry VI, Part Two”, p.188, Oxford University Press, USA

• For conspiracy,
  I know not how it tastes, though it be dished
  For me to try how.

  William Shakespeare

  Trying, Politics, Taste

  William Shakespeare, Libby Appel, Michael Flachmann (1986). “Shakespeare's Women: A Playscript for Performance and Analysis”, p.65, SIU Press

• I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.
  The secret mischiefs that I set abroach
  I lay unto the grievous charge of others.

  William Shakespeare

  Duplicity, Secret, Politics

  William Shakespeare, Janis Lull (2009). “King Richard III”, p.95, Cambridge University Press

• The commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts.

  William Shakespeare

  Athens, Politics, Forests

  William Shakespeare, Samuel Weller Singer, William Watkiss Lloyd, John Thompson, Thomas Stothard (1856). “Titus Andronicus. Romeo and Juliet. Timon of Athens. Julius Caesar”, p.354

• I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here,
  Pierced to the soul with slander's venomed spear.

  William Shakespeare

  Soul, Politics, Baffled

  1595 Mowbray to Richard. Richard II, act1, sc.1, l.170-1.

You May Also Like:

Miguel de Cervantes

Anne Hathaway

Charles Dickens

William Wordsworth

Christopher Marlowe

Moliere

Elizabeth I