“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.”
Jaques, Act II, scene vii.
Variant: All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts.
Source: As You Like It (1599–1600)
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William Shakespeare 699
English playwright and poet 1564–1616Related quotes
“The world's a stage on which all parts are played.”
A Game of Chess (1624), Act v. Sc. 1. Compare: "All the world ’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players", Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 7.; "The world ’s a theatre, the earth a stage, Which God and Nature do with actors fill", Thomas Heywood, Apology for Actors (1612).
Source: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
12. Prescription for Survival
Love and Power: The Psychology of Interpersonal Creativity (1966)
"Recalling War," lines 1–6, from Collected Poems 1938 (1938).
Poems
“All the world's a cage, and all the men and women are merely hamsters”
Love and Other Pranks (2017)
“Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.”
Source: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
First Week, First Day. Compare: "All the world ’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players", William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act ii. Scene 7.
La Semaine; ou, Création du monde (1578)