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Ay, but to die, and go we know not where, To lie in cold obstruction and to rot, This… — William Shakespeare

Play · Comedy (play)

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where, To lie in cold obstruction and to rot, This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice.

William Shakespeare
Measure for Measure · 1616
★ 2.9
Other tags relating to this quote
Topic
The afterlife
Genre
Comedy (play)
Medium
Play
Time
1616The Renaissance
Person
William Shakespeare
Provenance
Current citation
Shakespeare, William. "Measure for Measure." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 3, sc. 1.
Original citation
Shakespeare, William. "Measure for Measure." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 3, sc. 1.

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To be or not to be—that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep— No more—and by a sleep to say we end The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep— To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause.

William Shakespeare
Hamlet · 1616
Another quote aboutTopic·The afterlife