Macbeth quotes

• “Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires.”


  Said by Macbeth. Reveals Macbeths true nature, dark ambitions and desire for illegitimate power as he asks for concealment. Shows inner conflict— he knows it’s wrong and against God as he is not the rightful heir, but does it and wants it anyway.
• “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it.”


  Said by Lady Macbeth. Macbeth is being advised to appear innocent while secretly plotting wickedness.
• “It is too full o’the milk of human kindness.”


  Said by Lady Macbeth. Macbeth is too kind, not masculine enough to commit regicide.
• “If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me.”


  Said by Macbeth. Shows his ambition and how he believes that if fate wants him to be king, then fate will happen. Reflects Macbeths willingness to let things unfold as they will. Shows how Macbeths ambition drives his actions in the play.
• “Only vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself.”


  Said by Macbeth. Shows how excessive ambition can lead to its own downfall. Suggests that insatiable ambition can overreach and ultimately result in its own failure. Ambition leads to destruction.
• “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep.”


  Said by Macbeth. Macbeth expresses his guilt and remorse after killing King Duncan, suggesting he had ruined the innocence and peace associated with sleep through his heinous actions.
• ”Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown.”


  Said by Macbeth. Macbeth reflects on the emptiness of gaining the crown through immoral means, indicating that the crown has brought him no satisfaction or fulfilment.
• “For none of women born shall harm Macbeth.”


  Said by the witches— the second apparition. No one born of a woman can hurt Macbeth, giving him a sense of safety in his kingship. Macduff was born of a c-section, therefore is able to harm Macbeth as not technically ‘born of a woman.’
• “Unsex me here.”


  Said by Lady Macbeth. Femininity is seen as weak and fragile, so Lady Macbeth is asking for her feminine traits to be taken and replaced with masculine ones which will grant her more strength and power.
• ’Silver skin laced with golden blood’

  said about Duncan. Silver and gold are noble colour, shows Duncan as the rightful heir.
• ‘Something wicked this way comes.’


  said by the witches about Macbeth. The word wicked highlights how evil Macbeth has become, arguably worse than the witches.
• ‘So fair and foul a day I have not seen’


  said by Macbeth. his first line immediately links him to the witches.
• ‘our country sinks beneath the yoke’


  said by Malcolm. represents how scotland is unstable under macbeths rule