Famous quotes from Julius Caesar

Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar is filled with memorable lines, including the often-memorized speech by Mark Antony that begins “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” Below are some of the most well-known lines, in order of their appearance in the play.

Beware the Ides of March.
—Soothsayer, Act 1, scene 2

And since you know you cannot see yourself
So well as by reflection, I, your glass,
Will modestly discover to yourself
That of yourself which you yet know not of.
—Cassius, Act 1, scene 2

I love the name of honor more than I fear death.
—Brutus, Act 1, scene 2

Men at some time are masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
—Cassius, Act 1, scene 2

Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look.
He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.
—Caesar, Act 1, scene 2

But for mine own part, it was Greek to me.
—Casca, Act 1, scene 2

Shall Rome stand under one man’s awe?
—Brutus, Act 2, scene 1

Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.
—Brutus, Act 2, scene 1

When beggars die there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
—Calphurnia, Act 2, scene 2

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
—Caesar, Act 2, scene 2

Et tu, Brutè?—Then fall, Caesar.
—Caesar, Act 3, scene 1

Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war
—Antony, Act 3, scene 1

Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.
—Brutus, Act 3, scene 2

As he was valiant, I honor him. But, as he was ambitious, I slew him.
—Brutus, Act 3, scene 2

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interrèd with their bones.
—Antony, Act 3, scene 2

This was the most unkindest cut of all.
—Antony, Act 3, scene 2

Mischief, thou art afoot;
Take thou what course thou wilt.
—Antony, Act 3, scene 2

There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
—Brutus, Act 4, scene 3

This was the noblest Roman of them all.
— Antony, Act 5, scene 5

His life was gentle and the elements
So mixed in him that nature might stand up
And say to all the world “This was a man.”
— Antony, Act 5, scene 5