Top 67 Quotes About Claudius
#1. Life repeats Shakespearian themes more often than we think. Did Lady Macbeth, Richard III, and King Claudius exist only in the Middle Ages? Shylock wanted to cut a pound of flesh from the body of the merchant of Venice. Is that a fairy tale?
Varlam Shalamov
#2. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.-King Claudius
William Shakespeare
#3. After a war of about 40 years, undertaken by the most stupid [Claudius], maintained by the most dissolute [Nero], and terminated by the most timid [Domitian] of all the emperors, the far greater part of the island [of Britain] submitted to the Roman yoke.
Edward Gibbon
#4. Mischief and craft are plainly seen to be characteristics of this creature. - Claudius Aelianus, third century A.D., writing about the octopus
Peter Godfrey-Smith
#5. The decision of such judges as Claudius and his Senate is worth very little in the question of a man's innocence or guilt; but the sentence was that Seneca should be banished to the island of Corsica.
Frederic William Farrar
#6. I saw Derek Jacobi play Hamlet when I was 17, and he directed me as Hamlet when I was 27, and I directed him as Claudius in 'Hamlet' when I was 35, and I'm hoping we meet again in some other production of Hamlet before we both toddle off.
Kenneth Branagh
#7. Your firstborn son, Claudius, was all a man could hope for - a son better and wiser than his father.
Pierce Brown
#8. For this indiscretion Seneca relegates the emperor (Claudius) to a Sisyphean gamester's hell: condemned eternally to pick up the bones and thow them into a dice cup that has no bottom.
Ricky Jay
#9. For although Claudius had been accused of gambling and drunkenness, not only were no worse sins laid to his charge, but he had successfully established some claim to being considered a learned man.
Frederic William Farrar
#10. The neurotic thinks himself both Hamlet and Claudius, in a world that belongs to Polonius.
Mignon McLaughlin
#12. Ambitious of vision and swooping of camera, 'I, Frankenstein' is no 'I, Robot,' let alone 'I, Claudius,' but it's definitely watchable on a cold Jan. evening or, a few months from now, on your I, Pad.
Richard Corliss
#13. Claudius, you're luckier than you realize. Guard your appointment jealously. Don't let anyone usurp it."
"What do you mean, girl?"
"I mean that people don't kill their butts. They are cruel to them, they frighten them, they rob them, but they don't kill them.
Robert Graves
#14. The Roman censor Appius Claudius the Blind said, Every man is the architect of his own fortune.
Jim Rogers
#15. In the corrupted currents of this world
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law. . .
(Claudius, from Hamlet, Act 3, scene 3)
William Shakespeare
#16. There was living in the palace at this time a brother of the great Germanicus, and consequently an uncle of the late emperor, whose name was Claudius Caesar.
Frederic William Farrar
#17. KING CLAUDIUS
How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
HAMLET
Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun.
William Shakespeare
#18. When Nero, with a casual quip, declared 'mushrooms to be the food of the gods, since it was by means of a mushroom that Claudius has become a god',66 it
Tom Holland
#19. It's my new best friend, Claudius Templesmith, and as I expected it, he's inviting us to a feast.
Suzanne Collins
#20. As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he [ Claudius ] expelled them [the Jews] from Rome
Suetonius
#21. Hamlet: Farewell, dear mother
Claudius: Thy loving father, Hamlet
Hamlet: My mother. Father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh; so my mother.
William Shakespeare
#22. Evidently, quality of wits is more important than quantity.
Claudius
#23. [Jews were] fomenting a general plague on the whole world.
Claudius
#26. The people become more observant of justice, and do not refuse to submit to the laws when they see them obeyed by their enactor.
Claudius Claudianus
#27. O my offense is rank, it smells to heaven.
Claudius
#28. Men live best upon a little; Nature has given to all the privilege of being happy, if they but knew how to use their gifts.
Claudius Claudianus
#29. Luxury, that alluring pest with fair forehead, which, yielding always to the will of the body, throws a deadening influence over the senses, and weakens the limbs more than the drugs of Circe's cup.
Claudius Claudianus
#30. Nature has given the opportunity of happiness to all, knew they but how to use it.
Claudius Claudianus
#31. Those who are enslaved to their sects are not merely devoid of all sound knowledge, but they will not even stop to learn!
Claudius Galenus
#32. How silent lies the world
Within fair twilight furled,
Bringing such sweet relief!
A quiet room resembling,
Where, without fear or trembling,
You sleep away day's grief.
Matthias Claudius
#33. I was thinking, So, I'm Emperor, am I? What nonsense! But at least I'll be able to make people read my books now.
Robert Graves
#36. No one is more miserable than the person who wills everything and can do nothing.
Claudius
#37. Nature has placed his own happiness in each man's hands, if he only knew how to use it.
Claudius Claudianus
#38. To do no evil is good, to intend none better.
Claudius
#41. In Egypt, the cats ... afford evidence that animal nature is not altogether intractable, but that when well-treated they are good at remembering kindness.
Claudius Aelianus
#42. Say not always what you know, but always know what you say.
Claudius
#46. No one is free who does not lord over himself.
Claudius
#47. He who desires is always poor.
Claudius
#48. But godhead is, after all, a matter of fact, not a matter of opinion: if a man is generally worshipped as a god then he is a god. And if a god ceases to be worshipped he is nothing.
Robert Graves
#49. On occasions of this sort it was, I must admit, very pleasurable to be a monarch: to be able to get important things done by smothering stupid opposition with a single authoritative word.
Robert Graves
#50. The Road to insanity begins in the mind , Some have crossed half way , some have just begin ...
Claudius
#51. To do nothing evil is good; to wish nothing evil is better.
Claudius
#55. He is next to the gods whom reason, and not passion, impels; and who, after weighing the facts, can measure the punishment with discretion.
Claudius Claudianus
#57. They are raised on high that they may be dashed to pieces with a greater fall.
Claudius Claudianus
#59. Every branch of knowledge which a good man possesses, he may apply to some good purpose.
Claudius Buchanan
#61. Aristotle wore many rings and expensive clothes ... Plato found this off-putting and unsuited for a philosopher.
Claudius Aelianus
#65. He who wants peace must prepare for war.
Claudius
#66. What Roman power slowly built, an unarmed traitor instantly overthrew.
Claudius Claudianus
