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).
William ShakespeareRead
Romans, countrymen, and lovers, hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The speaker calls for attention and silence to present a vital message, suggesting the importance of listening to others.
In this quote, the speaker, likely appealing to a diverse audience of Romans, countrymen, and lovers, emphasizes the necessity of setting aside distractions and being receptive to an important message. This call for silence signifies the value of focused listening in understanding and addressing the issues at hand, reflecting on the need for communal engagement and understanding in societal matters.
Themes
CommunicationListeningAttentionMessageSilence
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on a controversial topic, this quote can remind participants to listen carefully before responding.
More from William Shakespeare
All quotes βLove bears it out even to the edge of doom.
William ShakespeareRead
Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.
William ShakespeareRead
Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it; the one brings fuel, the other blows it till it burns clear.
William ShakespeareRead
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
William ShakespeareRead
Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
William ShakespeareRead
Similar quotes
To be sure, those who are actually engaged in combat - those who actually see the maimed bodies and mourning mothers - struggle more than the rest of us to make sense of the reality of war.
Stanley HauerwasRead
It's impossible to be ethnically pure.
Olga TokarczukRead
LSD burst over the dreary domain of the constipated bourgeoisie like the angelic herald of a new psychedelic millennium. We have never been the same since, nor will we ever be, for LSD demonstrated, even to skeptics, that the mansions of heaven and gardens of paradise lie within each and all of us.
Terence MckennaRead
In war, truth is the first casualty.
AeschylusRead
'Stupidity' defines the mental state wherein we acknowledge that we've never been smarter as individuals and yet somehow we've never felt stupider. We now collectively inhabit a state of stupidity.
Douglas CouplandRead
It is a rude feeling, because it is natural only to people standing on the lowest level of morality, and expecting from other nations such outrages as they themselves are ready to inflict.
Leo TolstoyRead