6 quotations linked to The Tempest by or associated with William Shakespeare, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Power, freedom, forgiveness, betrayal, wonder, art, mortality, ambition and reconciliation as voiced through Prospero, Ariel, Caliban, Antonio and other dramatic characters.
Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.
“What’s past is prologue.”
The past is framed as context rather than the whole story, leaving the future open to further action.
The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1; Antonio says this while urging Sebastian toward a conspiracy against Alonso. The phrase is therefore embedded in morally compromised dramatic persuasion rather than neutral advice.
“My library was dukedom large enough.”
Prospero describes intellectual life as a realm large enough to absorb him, revealing both the power of study and his earlier withdrawal from political responsibility.
The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2; Prospero explains how deeply he preferred his library to governing Milan.
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
The dramatic line relocates evil from an imagined elsewhere into immediate human experience and frightening events in the present.
Act 1, Scene 2; Ferdinand describes the terror surrounding the shipwreck.
“The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.”
Prospero chooses deliberate mercy over retaliation, presenting forgiveness not as weakness but as the more difficult exercise of reason and character.
The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1; Prospero decides against vengeance after considering the suffering of his enemies.
“The isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.”
Caliban’s description complicates the way others see him by giving him one of the play’s most sensitive accounts of sound, place, and beauty.
The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 2; Caliban reassures Stephano and Trinculo about the mysterious music of the island.
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
The line emphasizes impermanence and the dreamlike brevity of human life.
Act 4, Scene 1.
