Macbeth - Important Quotations

Act 1
1. Witches: Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

2. Sergeant: Brave Macbeth - he well deserves that name! With sword steaming with blood, he carved
his way forward till he faced the wretch. Do sparrows scare eagles or lions fear hares? They were
like cannons with a double load of shot. They fought twice as hard!

3. Ross: Wedded to war and armoured for it, Macbeth fought hand to hand, sword against sword, till he'd
brought him to his knees.

4. Banquo: You look like women but you have beards

5. 1st Witch Hail to you, Thane of Glamis!

2nd Witch Hail to you, Thane of Cawdor!
3rd Witch All hail, Macbeth! You'll be King one day!

6. Banquo: The truth now! Are you supernatural? Or are you as mortal as you look? You greeted my
noble companion by his present title. Then you prophesied new honours, with hopes of royalty. Now
he's lost in thought. To me you say nothing.

7. 1st Witch: Lesser than Macbeth, and greater ..

2nd Witch: Not so happy, yet much happier.
3rd Witch: You shall father kings, yet not be one yourself.

8. Ross: The King was pleased to hear of your success, Macbeth. When he read of your valour
against the rebels, wonder silenced him. He was speechless with admiration.

9. Banquo: Very strange. But sometimes to tempt us to evil, the devil wins our confidence with small
snippets of truth. Then he betrays us in the big things that really matter.

10. Macbeth: (To himself) Two predictions have come true. The first steps towards that ultimate goal,the
throne! If it's evil -why has it given me a foretaste of success, beginning with something that's
true? Why am I thinking ghastly thoughts, that make my hair stand on end and my heart thump
unnaturally? Horrors in the mind are worse than real fears. Just thinking about murder is enough to
rattle my nerves and paralyse me.

11. Duncan: I have begun to favour you, and I will see you prosper. Joy overwhelms me to the point of
tears. Sons, kinsmen, Thanes, and members of the court, let it be known that I choose as my successor
my eldest son Malcolm.
Macbeth: (To himself) That's an obstacle that will trip me up unless I leap over it. way. Stars, stop
shining! Let darkness hide my wicked ambitions!
12. Lady Macbeth: You are too tenderhearted to take shortcuts. You want greatness. You are not
without ambition. But you lack the ruthlessness that's needed. Come home quickly, so that I can
inspire you with my passion. My brave words Will overcome the scruples standing between you and the
golden circle-the crown that Fate and the Supernatural seem to have destined for you!

13. Lady Macbeth: you spirits that serve the thoughts of mortals: rid me of the natural tenderness of
my sex, and fill me from head to toe with direst cruelty! Thicken my blood. Make me remorseless,
so that no prickings of conscience can alter my foul plans, nor stand in the way of what must be done.

14. Lady Macbeth: He'll never see tomorrow's sun! Your face, my Thane, is like a book. It can reveal
strange things to its readers. Avoid suspicion by acting normally. Be full of welcome in your eye, your
hand, and your tongue. Look like a harmless flower, but be the snake that's lying under it. Our
guest must be taken care of. Tonight's great business you must leave to me. It will secure us
unchallenged power for the rest of our lives.
Macbeth: We must discuss this more.
Lady Macbeth: Look frank and innocent. To show your feelings is dangerous. Leave everything else to
me.

15. Lady Macbeth: If what we did for you could be twice done, then doubled again, it would be a trifle
compared with the great honours you have bestowed upon our family. For past favours, and the newest
honours added to them, our lives are at your service.

16. Macbeth: Duncan is here on double trust. First, because I'm his kinsman and his subject -two good
arguments against the deed. Then because I'm his host. I ought to protect him from his murderer, not
carry the knife myself. I've nothing to spur me on but high-leaping ambition, which can often bring.
about one's downfall.

17. Macbeth: We'll go no further in this business. He has honoured me recently, and I've won great
respect from all sorts of people. This is to be enjoyed while it's new, not cast aside so soon.
Lady Macbeth: (Scornfully) Are you afraid to match your acts with your ambitions? Can you want that
littering prize-the crown - yet be a self-confessed coward. When you dared to do it, then you were a
man. To have ambition is to be so much more the man.
Macbeth: That's enough of that! I'll dare do anything that's worthy of a man.

18. Lady Macbeth; I'll ply his two officers with so much drink their memories will be fogged and their
brains addled. When they are dead drunk and sleeping like pigs, what can't we do to the unguarded
Duncan? What can't we blame on his sodden officers? They'll get the blame for our great murder.
Who would dare to take it otherwise since we shall grieve and lament his death so loudly?

Macbeth: Be a mother to boy children only! Your dauntless spirit is for making nothing but males! I'm
settled on it then. All my faculties shall be devoted to this terrible deed. Let's go, and pass the time
as perfect hosts. We must conceal our false hearts behind false faces.

Act 2
1. Banquo: l dreamt of the three Weird Sisters last night. In your case they've been pretty
accurate.
Macbeth [Lightly] I haven't given them a thought.

2. Macbeth: Is this a dagger I can see before me? With its handle towards my hand? Or are you
just an imaginary dagger? The invention of a sick mind? I'm so obsessed with murder that I'm
seeing things.

3. Macbeth: They only said their prayers and went to sleep again. I couldn't say 'Amen' when
they said 'God bless us'.
Lady Macbeth Don't brood so much! We mustn't keep thinking about it like this; it will
drive us mad.
Macbeth: I thought I heard a voice crying 'Sleep no more! Macbeth has murdered sleep!
Macbeth shall sleep no more!’

4. Lady Macbeth: Coward! Give me the daggers! I'll smear the faces of the servants so it will
look as if they did it.
[Lady Macbeth goes out. There are sounds of knocking]
Macbeth: Where's that knocking? What's happened to me, that every noise scares me? Is there
enough water in the oceans to wash my hands of this blood?
[Lady Macbeth returns. Her hands are red with blood]
Lady Macbeth: My hands are the same colour as yours - but l'd be ashamed to have a heart as
white as yours!
[The knocking continues. He shudders]
Macbeth: Wake Duncan with your knocking! I wish you could!

5. Macduff: The king has been murdered!

Lady Macbeth: Oh, nol What? In our house?
Macbeth: From now on, there's nothing left worth living for.
Lennox: By the look of things, his servants. Theirhands and faces were all smeared with blood.
So were their daggers. We found them on their pillows, still unwiped.
Macbeth: Oh, how I wish now I hadn't lost my self-control and wiled them! Who can be wise and
astounded, calm and furious, loyal and neutral - all at the same time? Nobody. My passion
overwhelmed my reason.
Donalbain: Here, smilers have knives beneath their cloaks. Our closest relatives have most
reason to murder us.

Act 3
1. Banquo It's yours now. King, Cawdor, Glamis. Everything, just as the Weird Women
promised: and I'm afraid you played a sus vile game to get it. Yet they said your children
wouldn't succeed, but that I myself would be the father of a line of kings.

2. Macbeth Are you riding far? Don't miss our feast!

Banquo: Your majesty, I will not.
Macbeth: Is Fleance going with you?
Banquo Yes, my good lord. It's time we were off.
Macbeth: May your horses run swift and sure! Here's wishing you a good ride. Farewell!

3. Macbeth: I fear Banquo deeply. In his regal nature, there's a ruling element to be feared. He's
daring; and with that fearless quality of mind, he has a wisdom which guides his courage to act
in safety. I fear no-one but him. While he's around, I feel constrained.

4. Macbeth: Both of you know Banquo was your enemy.

Both Murderers: True, my lord.
Macbeth: He's mine, too. And such a deadly one, that every moment he's alive stabs me to
the heart. It must be done tonight, away from the palace. Remember - I can't be involved. And
also, to make a clean job of it, want his son Fleance who'll be with him - to share the same fate.
His removal is just as important to me.

5. Lady Macbeth: Nothing's gained, all's lost, when a wish fulfilled brings no contentment.
It's better to be the victim than to live in worry on crime's proceeds.
[Macbeth enters]
Well, now, my lord! Why so solitary? Making companions of your morbid daydreams. Keeping
company with thoughts that ought to have died with those they brood on. What can't be cured
has to be endured. What's done is done.

6. Macbeth: Better to be with the dead - whom we have sent to rest in peace to gain our peace -
than to be tortured with mental agony! Duncan is in his grave. After the ups and downs of life, he
sleeps soundly. Our faces must be masks, disguising what's in our hearts.
Lady Macbeth: You must stop this.
Macbeth: My mind is full of scorpions, dear wife. You know that Banquo and his Fleance live!
Lady Macbeth: They're not immortal.
Macbeth: there shall be done a deed of dreadful importance!
Lady Macbeth: What's to be done?
Macbeth Stay in ignorance, dearest chick, till you praise the deed. Come, blinding night! Cover
the tender eye of pitying day and with your bloody and invisible hand, destroy the life that keeps
me in fear, Night falls. The crow flies homeward to the gloomy wood. The good things of day
begin to droop and become drowsy while the predators of the dark stir about their tasks.
7. Macbeth: The adult serpent's dead. The youngster that escaped has the makings of trouble,
[The ghost of Banquo enters and sits in Macbeth's place]
Macbeth: You cannot say I did it! Don't shake your gory locks at me!
Ross: Gentlemen, rise. His Highness is not well.
Lady Macbeth: Sit, good friends. My lord is often like this, and has been since his youth. Please,
stay in your seats. The fit will soon pass. He'll be well again in a moment. If you take too much
notice, you'll offend him and extend his fit. Eat up, and ignore him. [To Macbeth, angrily] Are you
a man?
Macbeth: Yes, and a bold one, that dares to look at what might scare the devil.
Lady Macbeth: Oh, really! This is a fear of your imagination. This is that airborne dagger which
you said led you to Duncan! Shame on you! Why are you making such faces? When all is said
and done, you are only looking at a stool!

8. Macbeth: I drink to the general joy of the whole table, and to our dear friend Banquo, who is
not present.

9. Macbeth: Can such things happen - like a cloud spoiling a summer's day -without astonishing
us? You make me doubt myself. You can behold such sights and keep the natural colour of your
cheeks. Mine turn white with fear.
Ross: What sights, my lord?
Lady Macbeth: Please don't say anything. He gets worse and worse. Questions enrage him.
Now, goodnight! No ceremonial leave-taking, Go at once.

10. Macbeth: Tomorrow, early on, I'll go to the Weird Sisters. They must tell me more. I must
know the worst, by whatever means. Nothing shall stand in the way of my interests. My
path has been so bloody, stopping now and going back would be no easier than going
forwards. I have some projects in my head that need action first, and thought later.

11. Hecate: He'll be drawn to his confusion.

He'll spurn his fate, scorn death, and bear
Is overconfidence and vanity.