← Back to quotes

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions. — William Shakespeare

Play · Tragedy (play)

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions.

William Shakespeare
Hamlet · 1616
★ 3.7
Provenance
Current citation
Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 4, sc. 5.
Original citation
Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 4, sc. 5.

Related quotes

Other quotes that share a subject, a time, or a voice with this one.

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 byPerson·William Shakespeare

Other media

Works in other forms that share a subject with this one.

Other media onSubject·Suffering