How to Live a Quality Life According to William Shakespeare — From Polonius’ Advice (in Hamlet)
This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man
When I was in high school and we studied Shakespeare, it read more like a foreign language.
I was repeatedly told by my English teacher how much depth and wisdom were in his words. But I struggled to understand it and was more interested in football, lifting weights, and girls.
I didn’t understand the wisdom of this Western Sage until several years later in India.
Nothing puts on show the practical philosophy of William Shakespeare more than that of Polonius’ Advice.
Polonius’ Advice is given in Act 1, Scene 3, of the play Hamlet. Polonius gives life for his son Laertes, who is leaving for France.
And these few precepts in thy memory. See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment. Of each new-hatch’d, unfledged comrade. Beware of…
