The most famous King Lear quotes run from “Nothing will come of nothing” in the first scene to Lear’s five cries of “Never” over Cordelia’s body in the last, and many of the play’s lines have passed into everyday English.
This page explains 42 of the best-known lines from King Lear, act by act, with who says each one, where it comes in the story, and what it means. For the plot and the characters, see our full guide to King Lear. For famous lines from all of Shakespeare’s plays, see our Shakespeare quotes hub.
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about the famous lines in King Lear for quick reference.
Act 1 Quotes
A contest of flattery, a daughter disowned, and a bastard son who plots against his brother.
“Sir, I Love You More Than Word Can Wield the Matter”
Goneril, Act 1, scene 1, answering her father’s demand to know which daughter loves him most. She claims her love is beyond what words can express, and then goes on at length. The speech wins her a third of the kingdom and shows the gap between words and love that drives the whole play.
“What Shall Cordelia Speak? Love, and Be Silent”
Cordelia, aside, Act 1, scene 1, as she listens to her sister’s speech. She decides that real love cannot be performed in public. Her silence will cost her everything she was about to inherit.
“Nothing Will Come of Nothing”
Lear, Act 1, scene 1, after Cordelia answers “Nothing, my lord” when asked what she can say to win the richest share. The full line is “Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again,” a warning that if she offers no praise she will get no land. It is the most famous line in the play, and the word “nothing” returns again and again until Lear himself is left with nothing.
“According to My Bond, No More Nor Less”
Cordelia, Act 1, scene 1: “I love your Majesty / According to my bond, no more nor less.” A “bond” is a duty or obligation: she loves him as a daughter should. Lear hears a measured, grudging love, but she means a love that is exact and true.
“Come Not Between the Dragon and His Wrath”
Lear, Act 1, scene 1, warning Kent not to interfere as he disowns Cordelia. He compares himself to a raging dragon. Kent interferes anyway and is banished for it.
“See Better, Lear”
Kent, Act 1, scene 1, as Lear orders him out of his sight. The line is Kent’s plea for the king to see the truth about his daughters, and it opens the play’s long pattern of images of sight and blindness.
“Love’s Not Love When It Is Mingled With Regards”
The King of France, Act 1, scene 1, turning to the Duke of Burgundy, who has withdrawn his suit because Cordelia has lost her dowry: “Love’s not love / When it is mingled with regards that stands / Aloof from th’ entire point.” Love that depends on outside considerations such as money is not love at all. France marries her himself.
“He Hath Ever but Slenderly Known Himself”
Regan, Act 1, scene 1, speaking privately to Goneril after Cordelia has been sent away. She blames their father’s rashness on age, but adds that he has never really known himself. It is a cruel remark, and an accurate one.
“Thou, Nature, Art My Goddess”
Edmund, opening his soliloquy in Act 1, scene 2. As an illegitimate son he has no rights under law and custom, so he declares his loyalty to raw nature instead, where the clever and bold take what they want. The speech sets out his plan to take his brother Edgar’s land.
“Now, Gods, Stand Up for Bastards!”
Edmund, closing the same soliloquy in Act 1, scene 2. It is a defiant joke and a battle cry, calling on the gods to side with people like him. Its energy helps make Edmund one of Shakespeare’s most magnetic villains.
“This Is the Excellent Foppery of the World”
Edmund, Act 1, scene 2, after his father blames the kingdom’s troubles on recent eclipses. “Foppery” means foolishness: people blame the sun, moon, and stars for their disasters when their own behavior is at fault. Edmund is a villain, but on this point many modern readers agree with him.
“Who Is It That Can Tell Me Who I Am?”
Lear, Act 1, scene 4, stunned by Goneril’s cold treatment. Having given away his power, he no longer knows who he is without it. The Fool answers in two words: “Lear’s shadow.”
“How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth It Is to Have a Thankless Child”
Lear, Act 1, scene 4, ending his terrible curse on Goneril. An ungrateful child hurts more than a snake’s bite. The line is one of the most often quoted in the play.
“Thou Shouldst Not Have Been Old Till Thou Hadst Been Wise”
The Fool, Act 1, scene 5. It sums up Lear’s mistake in one line: he grew old without growing wise. As a professional fool, he can say what no one else dares.
“O, Let Me Not Be Mad, Not Mad, Sweet Heaven!”
Lear, Act 1, scene 5, as he leaves Goneril’s house for Regan’s. It is the first sign that he fears for his own mind: “Keep me in temper. I would not be mad!” The fear will come true in the storm.
Act 2 Quotes
An outlaw in disguise, and two daughters who strip their father of everything.
“Edgar I Nothing Am”
Edgar, Act 2, scene 3, hunted as a traitor and about to disguise himself as Poor Tom, a mad beggar. The line reads “‘Edgar’ I nothing am”: as Edgar he no longer exists. It echoes the play’s repeated “nothing.”
“I Gave You All” and “And in Good Time You Gave It”
Lear and Regan, Act 2, scene 4, as his daughters bargain down the number of knights he may keep. Lear protests that he gave them everything, and Regan answers that he took his time about it. In one exchange, gratitude turns into cold arithmetic.
“O, Reason Not the Need!”
Lear, Act 2, scene 4, after Regan asks why he needs even one knight. Human life is more than bare survival: “Allow not nature more than nature needs, / Man’s life is cheap as beast’s.” The speech breaks off into helpless threats, and Lear goes out into the storm.
“I Will Do Such Things . . . They Shall Be the Terrors of the Earth!”
Lear, Act 2, scene 4, threatening his daughters: “I will do such things— / What they are yet I know not, but they shall be / The terrors of the Earth!” He wants revenge but no longer has the power to take it, and the threat trails away into tears he refuses to shed.
Act 3 Quotes
The storm on the heath, the king’s madness, and the blinding of Gloucester.
“Blow, Winds, and Crack Your Cheeks! Rage, Blow!”
Lear, Act 3, scene 2, out in the storm with only the Fool beside him. He commands the wind, rain, and thunder to destroy the world.
“I Am a Man More Sinned Against Than Sinning”
Lear, Act 3, scene 2, still in the storm. Others have wronged him more than he has wronged them. The phrase has become an everyday expression for anyone treated worse than they deserve.
“O, That Way Madness Lies”
Lear, Act 3, scene 4, outside the hovel, as his thoughts turn to Goneril and Regan: “O, that way madness lies. Let me shun that.” He knows that thinking about them will break his mind. The phrase is still used as a warning against dwelling on something painful.
“Poor Naked Wretches, Wheresoe’er You Are”
Lear, Act 3, scene 4, praying for the homeless poor of his kingdom before he enters the hovel. “O, I have ta’en / Too little care of this,” he admits. Suffering has taught him what his crown never did.
“Unaccommodated Man Is No More but Such a Poor, Bare, Forked Animal”
Lear, Act 3, scene 4, looking at Edgar disguised as the nearly naked Poor Tom. Without clothes and possessions, a human being is only a two-legged animal. He starts tearing off his own clothes: “Off, off, you lendings!”
“Out, Vile Jelly!”
Cornwall, Act 3, scene 7, as he puts out Gloucester’s second eye. It is often called one of the most shocking moments in Shakespeare. He follows it with a taunt: “Where is thy luster now?”
Act 4 Quotes
A blind father led by his unrecognized son, a mad king near Dover, and a reunion.
“The Worst Is Not So Long as We Can Say ‘This Is the Worst’”
Edgar, aside, Act 4, scene 1, on seeing his father blinded. He had thought he could sink no lower, and now he has. As long as we can still name the worst, it has not yet come.
“I Stumbled When I Saw”
Gloucester, Act 4, scene 1, telling an old man he has no need of eyes: “I have no way and therefore want no eyes. / I stumbled when I saw.” When he could see, he misjudged both his sons.
“As Flies to Wanton Boys Are We to th’ Gods; They Kill Us for Their Sport”
Gloucester, Act 4, scene 1. The gods treat human beings the way careless boys treat flies, killing them for fun. It is the bleakest statement of belief in the play, and one of the most quoted lines in Shakespeare about fate.
“’Tis the Time’s Plague When Madmen Lead the Blind”
Gloucester, Act 4, scene 1, when the old man objects that Poor Tom is mad. A world in which the mad lead the blind is a world gone wrong. Gloucester does not know that his guide is his own son.
“Ay, Every Inch a King”
Lear, Act 4, scene 6, mad and crowned with weeds, when the blind Gloucester recognizes his voice as the king’s. Lear’s answer is grand and pitiful at once. The phrase is now used of anyone with a regal bearing.
“A Dog’s Obeyed in Office”
Lear, Act 4, scene 6, to Gloucester. A farmer’s dog barking at a beggar is “the great image of authority”: power commands obedience whoever holds it. The same speech adds, “Through tattered clothes small vices do appear; / Robes and furred gowns hide all.”
“When We Are Born, We Cry That We Are Come to This Great Stage of Fools”
Lear, Act 4, scene 6, preaching to the blind Gloucester. A newborn cries because it has arrived in a world of fools. The image of life as a stage recalls Jaques’s “All the world’s a stage” in As You Like It, but Lear’s version has no comedy in it.
“I Am Bound Upon a Wheel of Fire”
Lear, Act 4, scene 7, waking in Cordelia’s care and believing he is dead: “Thou art a soul in bliss, but I am bound / Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears / Do scald like molten lead.” He imagines Cordelia in heaven and himself in hell.
“I Am a Very Foolish Fond Old Man”
Lear, Act 4, scene 7, as his mind clears: “I am a very foolish fond old man, / Fourscore and upward.” “Fond” means foolish, so the line doubles its own humility. The proud king of the first scene now describes himself as he is.
“No Cause, No Cause”
Cordelia, Act 4, scene 7, when Lear tells her she has good cause to hate him. Her forgiveness takes four words. After the elaborate speeches of her sisters, the simplest line in the play is the most loving.
Act 5 Quotes
A lost battle, a duel between brothers, and the deaths of Cordelia and Lear.
“Ripeness Is All”
Edgar, Act 5, scene 2, to his despairing father after the battle is lost: “Men must endure / Their going hence, even as their coming hither. / Ripeness is all.” We cannot choose the time of our death any more than the time of our birth; what matters is being ready.
“We Two Alone Will Sing Like Birds i’ th’ Cage”
Lear, Act 5, scene 3, to Cordelia as they are led away as prisoners: “Come, let’s away to prison. / We two alone will sing like birds i’ th’ cage.” Having found her again, he no longer cares about the world outside. The happiness is heartbreaking, because the audience knows what is coming.
“The Wheel Is Come Full Circle”
Edmund, Act 5, scene 3, mortally wounded by his brother: “The wheel is come full circle; I am here.” The wheel of Fortune that raised him has brought him back to the bottom. The everyday phrase “come full circle” is often traced to this line.
“Yet Edmund Was Beloved”
Edmund, Act 5, scene 3, when the bodies of Goneril and Regan are brought in, one poisoned by the other for his sake. The unloved bastard son takes a strange comfort in having been loved at last. Moments later he tries to save Lear and Cordelia.
“Howl, Howl, Howl, Howl! O, You Are Men of Stones!”
Lear, Act 5, scene 3, entering with Cordelia dead in his arms. He cannot understand how the people around him can stand silent. If he had their tongues and eyes, he would make “heaven’s vault” crack with grief.
“Never, Never, Never, Never, Never!”
Lear, Act 5, scene 3, over Cordelia’s body: “And my poor fool is hanged! No, no, no life! / Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, / And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more, / Never, never, never, never, never!” The line of five repeated words is among the most famous in English drama. Lear dies moments later, saying “Look there, look there!”
“Speak What We Feel, Not What We Ought to Say”
Edgar, in the Folio text, closing the play: “The weight of this sad time we must obey, / Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.” The lesson answers the first scene, where Lear demanded what he wanted to hear and rejected the daughter who spoke what she felt. In the 1608 Quarto the lines belong to Albany.
A Closer Reading: How Short the True Lines Are
Set the famous lines of King Lear side by side, and a pattern appears: the false lines are long, and the true lines are short. The play opens with Goneril’s seven-line declaration of love, piling up comparisons, “Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty, / Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare.” Regan tops it. Both are lying.
The truth, when it comes, comes in a few words. Cordelia says “Nothing, my lord.” Kent says “See better, Lear.” The Fool needs one line to sum up the king’s whole mistake. Gloucester’s discovery about his sons takes five words: “I stumbled when I saw.” Cordelia’s forgiveness takes four: “No cause, no cause.” Edgar’s philosophy takes three: “Ripeness is all.”
By the end, Lear’s own language has been stripped down to single words repeated. He enters with “Howl, howl, howl, howl!” and his last great line is one word said five times: “Never, never, never, never, never!” Each word is stressed on its first syllable, the reverse of the iambic pentameter that carries most of the play’s verse, so the line breaks the rhythm as grief breaks the man.
The play’s final couplet states the lesson outright: “Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.” It is a verdict on the first scene, where fine words won a kingdom and plain ones lost it. Many of the lines people remember from King Lear are its shortest, and that is no accident. In this play, the fewer the words, the more they can be trusted.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about the famous lines in King Lear, answered briefly.
What Is the Most Famous Quote From King Lear?
“Nothing will come of nothing,” Lear’s warning to Cordelia in the first scene, is probably the best known. “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is / To have a thankless child” and “As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods” are close behind.
What Does “Nothing Will Come of Nothing” Mean?
Lear means that if Cordelia says nothing to praise him, she will receive nothing from the kingdom. The phrase echoes an old philosophical saying that nothing can be created from nothing, and the play turns it back on Lear, who ends with nothing himself.
Who Says “As Flies to Wanton Boys Are We to the Gods”?
The Earl of Gloucester, in Act 4, scene 1, shortly after he has been blinded. The line continues, “They kill us for their sport.”
What Does “Ripeness Is All” Mean?
Edgar tells his father that people must accept their death when it comes, as they accepted their birth. What matters is being ready, like fruit that falls when it is ripe.
What Are Lear’s Last Words?
In most editions, “Look there, look there!” spoken as he gazes at Cordelia’s lips. Some readers believe he dies thinking she is still breathing.
Related Reading
Three pages that take King Lear further.