The most famous quotes from The Tempest are about dreams, magic, and wonder, and many of them are only half of an exchange: quoted alone, they lose the reply that gives them their meaning.
This guide collects the play’s best-known lines act by act, with who says each one, where it comes from, and what it means. For the plot and characters, see our full guide to The Tempest, and for the ideas behind the lines, see our guide to its themes.
At a Glance
Here are the five lines from The Tempest that everyone knows.
Quotes from Act 1
The storm, and the long scene in which Prospero tells Miranda who they are.
“What Cares These Roarers for the Name of King?”
The Boatswain, Act 1, scene 1, ordering the king’s party off the deck in the storm. The roaring waves do not care who is king, so the nobles should get below and let the sailors work. In the play’s first scene, a common seaman tells a king that his rank means nothing, a small preview of a play about the limits of power.
“O, I Have Suffered / With Those That I Saw Suffer!”
Miranda, Act 1, scene 2, her first words, after watching the ship go down. Before she knows anything about the people on board, she feels their pain as her own. It establishes her at once as the play’s voice of compassion.
“The Dark Backward and Abysm of Time”
Prospero, Act 1, scene 2, asking Miranda what she remembers from before the island: “What seest thou else / In the dark backward and abysm of time?” The past is pictured as a deep, dark space stretching behind her. She was not yet three when they arrived, and she remembers only, dimly, the women who once looked after her.
“My Library / Was Dukedom Large Enough”
Prospero, Act 1, scene 2, explaining how his brother took his place: “Me, poor man, my library / Was dukedom large enough.” Absorbed in his books, he handed the government of Milan to Antonio, who came to want the title too. The line is partly a confession: Prospero’s neglect made the usurpation possible.
“Good Wombs Have Borne Bad Sons”
Miranda, Act 1, scene 2, on hearing how her uncle betrayed her father. She will not think badly of her grandmother, she says, because good mothers can still have wicked children. Noble birth, in other words, is no guarantee of noble character.
“Hell Is Empty, / And All the Devils Are Here”
Ferdinand, as quoted by Ariel in Act 1, scene 2. Ariel reports that as the ship seemed to burn, the king’s son “Was the first man that leaped; cried ‘Hell is empty, / And all the devils are here.’” The fire was Ariel’s own work. The line is now often quoted on its own to mean that the world is full of wicked people.
“You Taught Me Language, and My Profit On ’t / Is I Know How to Curse”
Caliban, Act 1, scene 2, answering Miranda, who has reminded him that she taught him to speak. He turns the gift into an accusation: all he has gained from their language is the ability to curse them. He goes on at once to do so: “The red plague rid you / For learning me your language!”
“Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies”
Ariel’s song, Act 1, scene 2, sung to Ferdinand, who believes his father drowned: “Full fathom five thy father lies. / Of his bones are coral made. / Those are pearls that were his eyes.” Nothing of the drowned man decays, the song says, “But doth suffer a sea change / Into something rich and strange.” Alonso is in fact alive, but the phrase “sea change” is now an everyday English expression for a complete transformation.
“At the First Sight / They Have Changed Eyes”
Prospero, Act 1, scene 2, aside, watching Ferdinand and Miranda meet. They have exchanged loving looks, and fallen in love at first sight, exactly as he planned. He then pretends to be angry, “lest too light winning / Make the prize light.”
Quotes from Act 2
The shipwrecked court, a murder plot, and the clowns.
“What’s Past Is Prologue”
Antonio, Act 2, scene 1, urging Sebastian to kill his brother, the king. Everything that has happened, the shipwreck included, is only the prologue to the act they are about to perform: “what’s past is prologue, what to come / In yours and my discharge.” The line is now often quoted to mean that history sets the stage for the future, but in the play it is an argument for murder.
“I Feel Not / This Deity in My Bosom”
Antonio, Act 2, scene 1, when Sebastian asks about his conscience. If conscience were a sore on his heel, he says, it would at least make him wear a slipper, “but I feel not / This deity in my bosom.” It is his whole answer on the subject of guilt.
“Misery Acquaints a Man with Strange Bedfellows”
Trinculo, Act 2, scene 2, crawling under Caliban’s cloak to shelter from the storm. Hard times force people into unlikely company, and here, literally, into bed with a monster. The phrase lives on in “strange bedfellows,” used today for any odd alliance, often in politics.
“Freedom, High-Day!”
Caliban, Act 2, scene 2, drunk for the first time and newly sworn to Stephano: “’Ban, ’ban, Ca-caliban / Has a new master. Get a new man. / Freedom, high-day!” He celebrates his freedom in the same breath as he announces his new master, and he has only swapped one form of service for another.
Quotes from Act 3
A proposal, a drunken conspiracy, and a vanishing banquet.
“I Am Your Wife If You Will Marry Me”
Miranda, Act 3, scene 1, to Ferdinand: “I am your wife if you will marry me. / If not, I’ll die your maid.” She sets aside what she calls “bashful cunning” and proposes to him herself. If he will not marry her, she will stay unmarried and serve him anyway.
“Be Not Afeard. The Isle Is Full of Noises”
Caliban, Act 3, scene 2, when Stephano and Trinculo are frightened by Ariel’s invisible music: “Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises, / Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.” He describes music so lovely that it lulls him to sleep, and dreams so rich “that when I waked / I cried to dream again.” The character called a monster speaks some of the most beautiful verse in the play.
“He That Dies Pays All Debts”
Stephano, Act 3, scene 2, frightened by the same music and trying to sound brave. Death settles every account, so there is nothing to fear. A moment later he cries, “Mercy upon us!”
“You Are Three Men of Sin”
Ariel as a Harpy, Act 3, scene 3, after snatching away the banquet from Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio. Ariel reminds them that they drove out “good Prospero” and tells them that Alonso’s son has been taken from him in return. Their only escape from “Ling’ring perdition” is “heart’s sorrow / And a clear life ensuing.”
Quotes from Act 4
The engagement, the masque, and Prospero’s greatest speech.
“The Strongest Oaths Are Straw / To th’ Fire i’ th’ Blood”
Prospero, Act 4, scene 1, warning Ferdinand to wait until the wedding: “The strongest oaths are straw / To th’ fire i’ th’ blood.” Even solemn promises burn up like straw in the heat of desire. Ferdinand assures him that his heart is cooled by “The white cold virgin snow.”
“Our Revels Now Are Ended”
Prospero, Act 4, scene 1, breaking off the masque when he remembers Caliban’s plot: “Our revels now are ended. These our actors, / As I foretold you, were all spirits and / Are melted into air, into thin air.” The goddesses and dancers were spirits, and the show is over. From here, the speech widens to take in the whole world.
“We Are Such Stuff / As Dreams Are Made On”
Prospero, in the same speech. Towers, palaces, temples, and “the great globe itself” will all dissolve like the masque and “Leave not a rack behind,” not even a wisp of cloud. Then: “We are such stuff / As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep.” Human life is as brief and insubstantial as a dream, bounded on either side by sleep. It is one of the best-known lines in the play.
“A Devil, a Born Devil, on Whose Nature / Nurture Can Never Stick”
Prospero, Act 4, scene 1, about Caliban, whose plot against him is nearly ripe. All his efforts to educate Caliban, he says, are “all, all lost, quite lost.” It is Prospero’s bitterest verdict on the creature he once tried to teach.
Quotes from Act 5
Forgiveness, farewells, and a new world.
“The Rarer Action Is / In Virtue Than in Vengeance”
Prospero, Act 5, scene 1, after Ariel says the prisoners’ suffering would move a human heart. Though wronged, he sides with “my nobler reason ’gainst my fury.” Forgiveness is harder and rarer than revenge, and so it is nobler. Since his enemies are penitent, he will pursue them “Not a frown further.”
“This Rough Magic / I Here Abjure”
Prospero, Act 5, scene 1, at the end of a speech listing all his magic has done. He gives it up: “I’ll break my staff, / Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, / And deeper than did ever plummet sound / I’ll drown my book.” To abjure is to renounce solemnly. The magician chooses to become an ordinary man again.
“Where the Bee Sucks, There Suck I”
Ariel’s song, Act 5, scene 1, sung while helping Prospero dress as Duke of Milan: “Where the bee sucks, there suck I. / In a cowslip’s bell I lie.” Ariel imagines the carefree life to come, once freed. Prospero answers, “I shall miss / Thee, but yet thou shalt have freedom.”
“O Brave New World / That Has Such People In ’t!”
Miranda, Act 5, scene 1, seeing the king and his court for the first time: “How many goodly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world / That has such people in ’t!” “Brave” here means splendid. Prospero’s reply, “’Tis new to thee,” reminds us that the “goodly creatures” include the men who betrayed him.
“This Thing of Darkness I / Acknowledge Mine”
Prospero, Act 5, scene 1, of Caliban. Stephano and Trinculo, he tells the king, are Alonso’s servants to “know and own,” while “this thing of darkness I / Acknowledge mine.” The line can be read as a claim of ownership, as an admission of responsibility, or as both.
“Every Third Thought Shall Be My Grave”
Prospero, Act 5, scene 1, describing his plans: to see Miranda and Ferdinand married in Naples, then “retire me to my Milan, where / Every third thought shall be my grave.” Having given up his power and his daughter, he expects to spend his remaining years thinking often of death.
“Let Your Indulgence Set Me Free”
Prospero, the epilogue, speaking directly to the audience: “As you from crimes would pardoned be, / Let your indulgence set me free.” With his magic gone, only the audience’s applause and goodwill can release him. The man who spent the play controlling others ends by asking to be freed.
A Closer Reading: The Same Island, Seen Twice
Many of the play’s famous lines come in pairs, one character’s vision answered by another’s, and quoting only the first half loses the play’s real point: that the island looks completely different depending on who is looking.
The pattern starts with the court’s first scene on shore. Gonzalo is delighted: “How lush and lusty the grass looks! How green!” Antonio replies, “The ground indeed is tawny.” The same patch of ground is green to the hopeful old man and brown to the cynic.
It happens with people too. Miranda looks at Ferdinand and sees “A thing divine,” since she has seen so few men. Her father corrects her: “To th’ most of men this is a Caliban, / And they to him are angels.” The island’s music frightens Stephano and Trinculo, while Caliban, who has lived with it all his life, tells them, “Be not afeard.”
The pattern peaks in the play’s most famous exchange. Miranda cries, “O brave new world / That has such people in ’t!” Prospero answers, “’Tis new to thee.” She sees a splendid new humanity; he sees Antonio and Alonso. Neither is wrong. The play gives each vision its due, and the famous half of the line makes full sense only with its reply. Our guide to the Tempest characters follows each of these speakers through the play.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about quotes from The Tempest, answered briefly.
What Is the Most Famous Quote from The Tempest?
“We are such stuff / As dreams are made on,” spoken by Prospero in Act 4, scene 1. “O brave new world” and “Hell is empty, / And all the devils are here” are close behind.
Who Says “Hell Is Empty and All the Devils Are Here”?
Ferdinand, as he leaps from the burning ship in the storm. The audience does not hear him say it; Ariel reports his words to Prospero in Act 1, scene 2.
What Does “Sea Change” Mean?
In Ariel’s song, it means the change the sea works on a drowned body, turning bones to coral and eyes to pearls. Today it means any complete transformation.
What Does “What’s Past Is Prologue” Mean?
That everything so far has only set the stage for what comes next. Antonio says it in Act 2, scene 1, to persuade Sebastian that the shipwreck has given them their chance to kill the king.
Who Says “O Brave New World”?
Miranda, in Act 5, scene 1, when she sees the king and his court for the first time. “Brave” means splendid, not courageous.
Related Reading
Three pages that take The Tempest further.