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King Lear: Top Ten Quotes


Top Ten Quotes?

1) "You have begot me, bred me, loved me.
I return those duties back as are right fit:
Obey you, love you, and most honor you.
Why have my sisters' husbands if they say
They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty.
Sure I shall never marry like my sisters
To love my father all."
Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 106-115
Cordelia telling her father and the court how much she loves him. She is the only one of her sisters that actually speaks the truth.
2) ".And your large speeches
may your deeds approve,
That good effects may spring from words of love."
Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 209-211
Kent after he is banished talking to the sisters about showing their love through their actions. 
3) "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
to have a thankless child"
Act 1, Scene 4, Lines 302-303
4) "When we our betters see baring our woes
We scarcely think our miseries our foes"
Act 3, Scene 7, Lines 111-112
Edgar says after spending time with the insane king. 
5) "If she live long
And in the end meet the old course of death
Women will all turn monsters"
Act 3, Scene 7, Lines 125
One servant to another talking about Regan.
6) "A man may see how this world
Goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears."
Act 4, Scene 6, Lines 165-166
Lear says to Gloucester in one of his moments of reason
7) "Through tattered clothes small vices do appear.
Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks."
Act 4, Scene 6, Lines 180-183
8) "Reason in madness!"
Act 4, Scene 6, Line 193
Edgar exclaims after listening to the king. 
9) "We are not the first
Who with best meaning have incurred the worst"
Act 5, Scene 3, Lines 4-5
Cordelia tells her father to comfort him. 
10) "Break, heart, I prithee, break"
Act 5, Scene 7, Line 378
Kent exclaims when Cordelia and the King die.