Claudius Quotes in Hamlet

A little more than kin, and less than kind.

The serpent that did sting thy father’s life / Now wears his crown.

The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; / It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,— / A brother’s murder!

Now might I do it pat, now he is praying. / And now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven; / And so am I reveng’d. That would be scann’d: / A villain kills my father, and for that / I, his sole son, do this same villain send / To heaven. O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.

Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service,—two dishes, but to one table. That's the end.

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, / But in battalions.

No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize; / Revenge should have no bounds.

So excellent a king; that was to this / Hyperion to a satyr;