Exit, Pursued by a Quote (Part 1)

About This Quiz

Shakespeare unleashed one-liners like a Renaissance rap star suffering a quill addiction. Your exercise? Attribute these deathless zingers to their own plays.

Caveat: the Bard repurposed themes like a pro composter—star-crossed lovers yonder, power-maddened villains yon, fools speaking truth here and everywhere.

Hear the unmistakable sounds. Does it sound like someone's having an existential dilemma at 2 in the morning? Chances are Hamlet. Someone plotting murder while rhyming? Hi Macbeth. Teenagers making poor decisions in the process of love? That's Verona calling.

Start simple, end in tears.

Early questions are softball questions even your high school English teacher could hit out of the park. Later questions? Those are the questions that separate groundlings from scholars.

Caught between two choices? Trust your instincts—or else default to whatever has a higher body count.

START QUIZ

1/30

"To be, or not to be, that is the question."

[A] Hamlet | The most famous question in literature, asked by a prince who turned procrastination into an art form while Denmark rotted around him.

2/30

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."

[D] As You Like It | Melancholy Jaques drops this truth bomb in the Forest of Arden, basically inventing the concept of life as performance art centuries before Instagram.

3/30

"Now is the winter of our discontent."

[B] Richard III | Richard opens with this weather report from hell, immediately letting everyone know he's the villain and loving every twisted minute of it.

4/30

"A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!"

[C] Richard III | The worst Uber request in history, shouted by Richard as his evil schemes literally unhorse him at Bosworth Field.

5/30

"Out, out brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow."

[A] Macbeth | Macbeth's nihilistic TED talk after Lady M's death, comparing life to a candle that someone forgot to buy the extended warranty for.

6/30

"This above all: to thine own self be true."

[A] Hamlet | Polonius gives genuinely good advice for once, right before spending the rest of the play being a meddling helicopter parent.

7/30

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on."

[D] The Tempest | Prospero's mic drop about reality being basically a cosmic dream, making every philosophy major nod knowingly for four centuries and counting.

8/30

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

[C] Romeo and Juliet | Juliet's logical argument that names don't matter, tragically unaware that in Verona, your last name is literally a death sentence.

9/30

"The course of true love never did run smooth."

[B] A Midsummer Night's Dream | Lysander states the obvious while love juice, donkey heads, and fairy chaos prove him spectacularly right in the weirdest way possible.

10/30

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears."

[A] Julius Caesar | Mark Antony's viral funeral speech that manipulates a crowd so masterfully, every politician since has been taking notes.

11/30

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

[D] Hamlet | Queen Gertrude accidentally invents the concept of suspicious denial while watching a play that's basically calling her out in real-time.

12/30

"If music be the food of love, play on."

[B] Twelfth Night | Duke Orsino's overly dramatic Spotify request, proving that melodramatic pining existed long before emo music was invented.

13/30

"Parting is such sweet sorrow."

[B] Romeo and Juliet | Juliet invents the oxymoron that launched a thousand yearbook signatures, not knowing this particular goodbye is practice for the permanent one.

14/30

"Et tu, Brute?"

[D] Julius Caesar | Caesar's ultimate "I can't believe you've done this" moment, expressing betrayal in Latin because dying dramatically requires class.

15/30

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

[B] Hamlet | Hamlet goes full relativist philosopher, basically inventing cognitive behavioral therapy while pretending to be mad in medieval Denmark.

16/30

"This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle."

[A] Richard II | John of Gaunt's epic love letter to England, the most patriotic deathbed speech that makes "God Save the Queen" sound understated.

17/30

"What a piece of work is man."

[B] Hamlet | Hamlet's Renaissance humanist manifesto turns dark fast, praising humanity while simultaneously being disgusted by literally everyone around him.

18/30

"O brave new world that has such people in't."

[D] The Tempest | Miranda discovers other humans exist beyond her island, adorably naive that these "brave" new people include attempted murderers and drunken conspirators.

19/30

"The time is out of joint."

[A] Hamlet | Hamlet complains about having to fix Denmark's problems like a millennial forced to solve boomer mistakes, except with more ghosts and poison.

20/30

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."

[A] As You Like It | Touchstone drops this Socratic wisdom bomb in the forest, proving that even Shakespeare's clowns had philosophy degrees.

21/30

"There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face."

[B] Macbeth | Duncan tragically observes that faces lie, minutes before trusting the guy whose face is basically screaming "I will murder you tonight."

22/30

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once."

[B] Julius Caesar | Caesar's brave words about death, ironically spoken by someone who ignored every warning sign, omen, and literal fortune teller.

23/30

"Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage."

[C] Macbeth | Macbeth compares life to bad community theater, the ultimate burn from a guy who starred in his own tragedy.

24/30

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves."

[D] Julius Caesar | Cassius rejects astrology in favor of personal responsibility, right before making choices that definitely prove the stars had a point.

25/30

"We know what we are, but know not what we may be."

[A] Hamlet | Ophelia's heartbreaking observation about potential, delivered while distributing flowers and slowly losing her grip on reality's steering wheel.

26/30

"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late."

[C] The Merry Wives of Windsor | Ford's anxiety about punctuality reaches peak levels, making him the patron saint of people who arrive embarrassingly early to parties.

27/30

"All things are ready, if our mind be so."

[C] Henry V | Henry V gives his troops the medieval equivalent of "it's all about mindset, bro" before charging into impossible odds at Agincourt.

28/30

"To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

[D] Hamlet | Polonius expands his self-help wisdom, ironically coming from literature's most two-faced spy dad who hides behind curtains professionally.

29/30

"How poor are they that have not patience!"

[A] Othello | Spoken by Iago in Act 2, Scene 3 of Othello, the jab lands like a velvet dagger—reminding us that in Shakespeare’s world, patience isn’t a virtue; it’s a weapon.

30/30