William Shakespeare As You Like It
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)
“The world's a stage on which all parts are played.”
Thomas Middleton (1580–1627) English playwright and poet
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).
“All the world's a cage, and all the men and women are merely hamsters”
Tony Vigorito (1950) American writer
Love and Other Pranks (2017)
Richard Edwardes Damon and Pythias
Damon and Pythias (written in 1564, published in 1571), lines 348-351.
Paul Rosenfels (1909–1985) American sociologist
12. Prescription for Survival
Love and Power: The Psychology of Interpersonal Creativity (1966)
“Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit.”
Augustus (-63–14 BC) founder of Julio-Claudian dynasty and first emperor of the Roman Empire
Statement made as he was dying, as quoted in The Fall of the Roman Empire (2007) by Rita J. Markel, p. 126
William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1838–1903) British politician
Source: A History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne (1869), Chapter 1 (2nd edition, Vol. 1, London: Longmans, 1869, p. 103 https://books.google.it/books?id=hdUJs_S3ezwC&pg=PA103)
Tom Stoppard book Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Source: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
