As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have; but, in their stead, / Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, / Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not" (5.3.25-28).
Commit the oldest sins the newest kind of ways.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that people continue to engage in age-old immoral behaviors but adapt them to modern contexts.
William Shakespeare's quote reflects on the timeless nature of human flaws and transgressions. Despite changes in society and advancements in culture, the core sins and moral failings of humanity persist, often resurfacing in new and innovative forms. This observation highlights the idea that while the methods and contexts may evolve, the underlying issues of human behavior remain constant throughout history.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about morality in contemporary society, one might use this quote to illustrate how old ethical dilemmas reappear with new technologies.
More from William Shakespeare
All quotes →Love bears it out even to the edge of doom.
Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.
Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it; the one brings fuel, the other blows it till it burns clear.
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
Similar quotes
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Historians are prophets with their face turned backward.
There's an African proverb: 'When death finds you, may it find you alive.' Alive means living your own damned life, not the life that your parents wanted, or the life some cultural group or political party wanted, but the life that your own soul wants to live.
Now I’m just standing here on the conveyor. Along for the ride. I reach the end, turn around, and go back the other way. The world has been distilled. Being dead is easy. After a few hours of this, I notice a female on the opposite conveyor. She doesn’t lurch or groan like most of us. Her head just lolls from side to side. I like that about her. That she doesn’t lurch or groan. I catch her eye and stare at her.
What preoccupies us, then, is not God as a fact of nature, but as a fabrication useful for a God-fearing society. God himself becomes not a power but an image.
My destination is no longer a place, rather a new way of seeing.