This is your Macbeth quotes bank, organised by theme. I have purposefully included no more than four quotes per theme, to ensure that your revision is concise and to-the-point. It is much better to have a few very good, versatile quotes than hundreds of them that you can barely remember or analyse.
Personally, I would focus on learning the key quote, who speaks it, and when they speak it. As for the notes, I would treat these as a starting point for analysis. Trying to learn these word-for-word is a waste of time. Rewriting them in your own words, however, will make the quotes much clearer in your memory.
Ambition quotes
“Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires”Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 4
A great opening quote for the theme. Macbeth wants to hide his 'black and deep desires' from the light; from God.
“I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself”Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 7
The single most important quote for the theme. Macbeth admits he has no reason to kill Duncan except pure ambition, pictured as a rider leaping too high and falling.
“To be thus is nothing, / But to be safely thus”Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 1
Ambition never rests. Being king is worthless unless he is safe, which he never can be, so he keeps killing. Go deeper by visiting the ambition quotes page.
Guilt quotes
“Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?”Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 2
Guilt straight after the murder. Contrast it with Lady Macbeth's 'a little water clears us'.
“Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep'”Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 2
By killing the sleeping king he has murdered his own peace. Sleep symbolises a clear conscience, so he will never rest again.
“Out, damned spot! Out, I say!”Lady Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 1
The guilt she once dismissed erupts in her sleep. She hallucinates a bloodstain that she cannot scrub away. Perfect to explore the motif of blood.
“all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”Lady Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 1
The reversal of her earlier confidence. Now nothing can clean her, and 'little hand' returns her to the feminine weakness she tried to escape. Go deeper by visiting the guilt quotes page.
The supernatural quotes
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair”The Witches, Act 1 Scene 1
The opening chant, equivocal and frightening. Macbeth unknowingly echoes it in his first line, tying him to the witches from the start.
“All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!”The Witches, Act 1 Scene 3
The first prophecy; the one that catalyses Macbeth's ambitions.
“none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth”The Apparition, Act 4 Scene 1
Equivocal language. Macbeth's misinterpretation of it is fatal. Go deeper by visiting the supernatural quotes page.
Kingship and the natural order quotes
“There's no art / To find the mind's construction in the face”King Duncan, Act 1 Scene 4
A key line for appearance versus reality, as King Duncan admits he cannot see beneath deceptive appearances. While a virtuous king, King Duncan is not without flaws.
“this even-handed justice / Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice / To our own lips”Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 7
Macbeth foresees his own punishment, that violence returns to the one who starts it. It illustrates the moral order that will eventually destroy him.
Appearance, reality and masculinity quotes
“look like th' innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't”Lady Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 5
Lady Macbeth's powerful deception. For a perceptive point, link her use of 'serpent' to the Bible and ideas of original sin.
“When you durst do it, then you were a man”Lady Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 7
Lady Macbeth is initially the more dominant partner. She challenges Macbeth's masculinity, equating manhood with violence. Visit the Lady Macbeth page for a more detailed character analysis.
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day”Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 5
Macbeth's nihilistic end. His appearance of nobility, wealth, and honour has dissolved, leaving his barren reality to seep to the surface.
Having recalled the key quotes, connect them to the characters on the Macbeth characters pages and to ideas on the Macbeth themes page, and check where each line sits in the story with the Macbeth summary.