Happy Shakespeare's Birthday!

If you told me I could ready only one book for the rest of my life, I would without hesitation choose the complete works of Shakespeare. He was brilliant, dramatic, funny, and naughty. He practically reinvented the English language. And I don't know that any writer had more insight into the human condition.

Is there anything we need to know about parents and children that isn't contained in King Lear? Or anything about ambition and power that isn't included in Macbeth?

Let's hear of a few of your favorite Shakespeare quotations, in honor of the Bard. I'll start (from memory, so forgive me if they're slightly off):

"How much sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!" (Lear)

"If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly" (Macbeth)

"Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms" (Midsummer Night's Dream)

bijouxbroussard · F

"Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash. ’Tis something, nothing:
’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands.
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed."
(Othello)

"The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."
(The Merchant of Venice)