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
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!
Interpretation
What this quote means
The pain of having an ungrateful child is profound and cuts deeply.
This quote from Shakespeare encapsulates the deep sorrow and hurt a parent feels when their child shows ingratitude or disobedience. It likens the emotional pain to the sharpness of a serpent's tooth, illustrating how betrayal from a loved one can wound more than physical harm, emphasizing the importance of gratitude in familial relationships.
Themes
ThanklessChildIngratitudeParentingSorrow
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about parenthood, one might quote Shakespeare to express the emotional toll of raising ungrateful children.
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
Words don't hurt you." Which is one of the hugest criminal lies perpetrated by adults against children in this world. Because words hurt more than any physical pain.
Neal ShustermanRead
Home is where the people who live there need me to come home to them, and worry about me when I'm gone. There's no such place on this earth, no matter how far I drive.
Orson Scott CardRead
Shyness is about the fear of social judgments - at a job interview or a party you might be excessively worried about what people think of you. Whereas an introvert might not feel any of those things at all, they simply have the preference to be in a quieter setting.
Susan CainRead
A lot of my personality was informed by feeling very different in the world I grew up in, feeling that I didn't fully belong, that my parents didn't belong.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
Daughter am I in my mother's house, but mistress in my own.
Rudyard KiplingRead
I believe that in the long run, separation between Israel and the Palestinians is the best solution for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Yitzhak RabinRead