“When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!”

Source: Hamlet

Last update Oct. 31, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!" by William Shakespeare?
William Shakespeare photo
William Shakespeare 699
English playwright and poet 1564–1616

Related quotes

Aubrey Thomas de Vere photo

“When I was young, I said to Sorrow,
"Come and I will play with thee!"”

Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902) Irish poet and critic

He is near me now all day,
And at night returns to say,
"I will come again to-morrow—
I will come and stay with thee."
Song, When I was Young I said to Sorrow; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 736.

Pietro Badoglio photo

“Sir, give me a single battalion of the Royal Carabineers and I will drive these upstarts into the sea.”

Pietro Badoglio (1871–1956) Italian general during both World Wars and a Prime Minister of Italy

Quoted in "The Civilizing Mission" - Page 232 - by A. J. Barker - 1968

John Kendrick Bangs photo
Abraham Lincoln photo

“In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Letter to Fanny McCullough (23 December 1862); Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler
1860s
Context: In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares. The older have learned to ever expect it. I am anxious to afford some alleviation of your present distress. Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You can not now realize that you will ever feel better. Is not this so? And yet it is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again. To know this, which is certainly true, will make you some less miserable now. I have had experience enough to know what I say; and you need only to believe it, to feel better at once.

Alexandre Dumas photo
Sherrilyn Kenyon photo
Stephen Foster photo

“The day goes by like a shadow o’er the heart,
With sorrow where all was delight;
The time has come when the darkies have to part:
Then my old Kentucky home, good night!”

Stephen Foster (1826–1864) American songwriter

My Old Kentucky Home. Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“At the end of the season of sorrows comes the time of rejoicing. Spring, like a well-oiled clock, noiselessly indicates this time.”

Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) American speculative fiction writer

First lines of Zelazny's first published short story, Passion Play (1962)

George Eliot photo

Related topics