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Shakespeare's Birthday: 7 Of The Most Famous Shakespeare Quotes (PHOTOS, POLL)

The Huffington Post     First Posted: 06/23/10 06:12 AM ET   Updated: 05/25/11 05:15 PM ET

Shakespeare's birthday is being celebrated today around the world, though no one knows for sure the date that the bard was born. By many accounts, however, Shakespeare's birthday is the day that he died, April 23, and this year, he's turning 446. So why not celebrate?

Quotes from Shakespeare's plays have become so well-known over the years that many of them have worked their way into the common lexicon. Certain phrases in Shakespeare plays have become so common in the English language that people don't always know that they're even from Shakespeare. Below are some of the bard's most famous lines. Let us know your favorites!

"To be or not to be -- that is the question"
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From "Hamlet": Perhaps the most famous Shakespeare quotation. This is the opening of Hamlet's soliloquy, in which he ponders the existential questions of life and death.
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Shakespeare's birthday is being celebrated today around the world, though no one knows for sure the date that the bard was born. By many accounts, however, Shakespeare's birthday is the day that he di...
Shakespeare's birthday is being celebrated today around the world, though no one knows for sure the date that the bard was born. By many accounts, however, Shakespeare's birthday is the day that he di...
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Gatormouth
Eh.
1067 Fans
03:14 PM on 05/08/2010
Make that his sister. Sorry.
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Gatormouth
Eh.
1067 Fans
03:12 PM on 05/08/2010
Now, understand that in violently anti-catholic Tudor England a "nunnery" was a slang term for a brothel. When Hamlet said "get thee to a nunnery" he was being especially angry and very nasty, and not just advising his mother to be chaste.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
The Cause Endures
272 Fans
 
04:52 AM on 04/26/2010
Damn man and I didn't even get you anything.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Immhotep
40 Fans
12:21 AM on 04/26/2010
The person credited with those works would not have the capacity to write them.
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wellingtonian
55 Fans
09:02 PM on 04/25/2010
What about "But, for my own part, it was Greek to me" or "there's daggers in men's smiles"?
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theredqueen
Some days I can't spell.
417 Fans
01:09 PM on 04/25/2010
I've always been partial to "the first thing we do, lets kill all the lawyers". Henry V1.
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SayLessDoMore
100 Fans
07:08 PM on 04/26/2010
Hmmmm. Said by a guy named Dick. May we presume that you also know that it was in the context of provoking rebellion and anarchy?
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
UncleJimbo
BLANK!
3886 Fans
11:55 AM on 04/25/2010
How do you know the MacBeth's had a dog?.......The line "Out Out D@med Spot!"
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SayLessDoMore
100 Fans
07:08 PM on 04/26/2010
Spot had a dome?
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rambot02
A modest proposal...
1304 Fans
10:46 PM on 04/24/2010
I'm tired of these oldies-but-goodies. It is time to expand the Bard's Top 40 playlist.

I'm a particular fan of Shakespeare's insults. Yes, Will was into the snark, the bitch-slap, the verbal wedgie. Here are a few of my faves:

"I do desire we may be better strangers." -- As You Like It
"Thou art a boil, a plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle." -- King Lear
"Infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise-breaker." -- All's Well That Ends Well
"Not so much brain as earwax" -- Troilus and Cressida
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
trjones87
food. wine. books.
21 Fans
 
06:33 PM on 04/24/2010
Wow huff post! Way to recycle an article. What? Thought no one would notice?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
2CLEVER
59 Fans
05:46 PM on 04/24/2010
man da dudes older than jps
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jmcvann
0 Fans
12:08 AM on 04/24/2010
Methinks it is like a weasel
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LMPE
I connect the most dissimilar things
1542 Fans
07:07 PM on 04/23/2010
Double, double, toil and trouble

I wonder how Beavis & Butthead talk would sound if translated into Shakespearean talk.
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naschkatze
A free man creates himself.
2055 Fans
04:03 PM on 04/23/2010
Get thee to a nunnery always gets an honorable mention, but I use, and have heard used, The lady doth protest too much" much more often.
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Vinlander
88 Fans
02:55 PM on 04/23/2010
What about "Hey, Bacon, go F*CK yourself, I wrote every G*ddam word of it."
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naschkatze
A free man creates himself.
2055 Fans
04:03 PM on 04/23/2010
LOL
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rambot02
A modest proposal...
1304 Fans
10:33 PM on 04/24/2010
LOL X2
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Frostfly
33 Fans
02:41 PM on 04/23/2010
A rose by any other name?
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publanski
137 Fans
08:34 PM on 04/24/2010
a rose is a rose is a rose
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