How Shakespeare can apply to modern-day world...

[Capulet]

I'm currently reading Shakespeare's play, 'Julius Ceasar.' Throughout the play, the different conspirators discuss liberty, tyranny, rights of the people, etc.

So, post your quotes that you think can be applied to the modern-day world.

We at the height are ready to decline.
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.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

Brutus speaks these words in Act IV, scene ii in order to convince Cassius that it is time to begin the battle against Octavius and Antony. He speaks figuratively of a “tide” in the lives of human beings: if one takes advantage of the high tide, one may float out to sea and travel far; if one misses this chance, the “voyage” that one’s life comprises will remain forever confined to the shallows, and one will never experience anything more glorious than the mundane events in this narrow little bay. Brutus reproaches Cassius that if they do not “take the current” now, when the time is right, they will lose their “ventures,” or opportunities.

I think that this can be applied to current-day politics. Right now, we can take advantage of the 'tide,' we can save ourselves and change the course of the world, and usher in a new age in the world. Personally, when I think of this quote, I think of the choice we have on Election Day in the United States. We either take advantage of the opportunity we have to change the course of our country and the world, or we willr emain forever confined to the shallows.

 

[Elgalad]

Henry, Earl of Richmond in an oration to his troops..

"More than I have said, loving countrymen,
The leisure and enforcement of the time
Forbids to dwell on: yet remember this,
God and our good cause fight upon our side;
The prayers of holy saints and wronged souls,
Like high-rear'd bulwarks, stand before our faces;
Richard except, those whom we fight against
Had rather have us win than him they follow.
For what is he they follow? truly, gentlemen,
A bloody tyrant and a homicide;
One rais'd in blood, and one in blood establish'd;
One that made means to come by what he hath,
And slaughter'd those that were the means to help him;
A base foul stone, made precious by the foil
Of England's chair, where he is falsely set;
One that hath ever been God's enemy.
Then, if you fight against God's enemy,
God will in justice, ward you as his soldiers;
If you do sweat to put a tyrant down,
You sleep in peace, the tyrant being slain;
If you do fight against your country's foes,
Your country's fat shall pay your pains the hire;
If you do fight in safeguard of your wives,
Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors;
If you do free your children from the sword,
Your children's children quit it in your age.
Then, in the name of God and all these rights,
Advance your standard, draw your willing swords.
For me, the ransom of my bold attempt
Shall be this cold corse on the earth's cold face;
But if I thrive, the gain of my attempt
The least of you shall share his part thereof.
Sound drums and trumpets, boldly and cheerfully;
God and Saint George! Richmond and victory!"

-from The Tragedy of King Richard the Third, Act V. Scene III. by William Shakespeare


There are few who truly glory in war for its own ends. Too often, the argument is presented that any alternative to the bloody struggle of open conflict must be preferable ~ All sane persons desire peace, after all. But there have always been and there will always continue to be times when War is inevitable, particularly when those people we love and those things most worth preserving have fallen into Harm's way. The Denial of that very fact and the pursuit of Peace at any price have usually preceded history's most terrible conflicts.

Some say that only fools actively seek something worth dying for. But I believe adamantly that until one values someone or something more than one's own life, one can never truly live.


-Elgalad