Shakespeare- Q & A

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

Q: I often feel that I owe something for my bad behavior in past years, but you say this is false guilt.

A: Come, there is no more tribute to be paid. Our kingdom is stronger than it was at that time. (Shakespeare)

Q: What basic rule will help us retain self-command when dealing with an angry person?

A: Oppose not rage while rage is in its force, but give it way a while and let it waste. (Shakespeare)

Q: The lessons we have heard so far indicate that we can use our tribulations for self-freedom or for self-imprisonment, according to the way we handle them.

A: Sweet are the uses of adversity. (Shakespeare)

Q: I feel that my past failures may have disqualified me for changing my fortunes today.

A: What you do still betters what is done. (Shakespeare)

Q: What can we do about an adverse fate?

A: The fault . . . is not in our stars, but in ourselves (Shakespeare)

Q: My difficulty is self-doubt. One minute I think I know how to improve my life, but the next minute I am overwhelmed by uncertainty.

A: Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt. (Shakespeare)

Q: Please summarize our needed course of action.

A: Sleep no more! (Shakespeare)

Q: Why do we fail so often in our attempts to win what we want? Why do results so often turn out contrary to our desires?

A: We, ignorant of ourselves, beg often our own harms, which the wise powers deny us for our own good; so find we profit by losing of our prayers. (Shakespeare)

Q: What if we find difficulty in understanding what we must do?

A: Truth makes all things plain. (Shakespeare)

Q: I have noticed that all of the great teachers emphasize the need for honestly observing and then abandoning our negative traits. I wonder why they give so much attention to the losing of negative features, instead of showing us how to acquire positive traits.

A: We lot away that bearing boughs may live. (Shakespeare)

Q: We are aware of how humanity likes to flatter itself on its wisdom and heroism, but how does an awakened man see it?

A: But man, proud man, drest in a little brief authority, most ignorant of what he's most assured, his glassy essence, like an angry ape, plays such
fantastic tricks before high heaven as make the angels weep.(Shakespeare)

Q: I suppose that you mean we must empty ourselves of false values, like pride and self-righteousness. But how does this protect a man from the hostility of others?

A: Having nothing, nothing can he lose. (Shakespeare)

Q: But what is the esoteric explanation for the huge success and fame of some people who are neither talented nor conscientious?

A: Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered. (Shakespeare)

Q: I cannot imagine any world other than the troublesome one I now inhabit!

A: There are more things in heaven and earth. . . than are dreamt of in your philosophy. (Shakespeare)

Q: Both Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius teach that a change of opinion towards a circumstance changes that circumstance as far as the individual is concerned. Could you pleaser explain that principle in another way?

A: There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. (Shakespeare)

Q: I would be happier if I could see myself taking long leaps out of the spiritual desert into the meadows.