Thread: To be, or not to be....

That is the question.

Originally Posted by Seraphim

That is the question.

to be.....not to be..

I've gotta go with be.

Or were you looking for:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

doobie or not doobie, THAT is the question......

dizzy gillespie said to be or not to bop

Nietzsche said, "To do is to be."

Kant said, "To be is to do."

And Sinatra sang, "Do be do be do…"

Hmmm... I think I'll go with Frank on this one.

The guys at the bar used to say are you bein' or buyin' ?

Ah, "Whether 'tis Nobler in the minde to suffer
The Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune,
Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them:" A good question indeed.

Well, "to dye, to sleepe
No more; and by a sleepe, to say we end
The Heart-ake, and the thousand Naturall shockes
That Flesh is heyre too? 'Tis a consummation
Deuoutly to be wish'd." so, not to be is the answer.

But, "To dye to sleepe,
To sleepe, perchance to Dreame; I, there's the rub,
For in that sleepe of death, what dreames may come,
When we haue shufflel'd off this mortall coile,
Must giue vs pawse. There's the respect
That makes Calamity of so long life:" which suggest we should reconsider.

Reconsider with something Shakespeare is so good at giving us, a shopping list!
"For who would beare the Whips and Scornes of time,
The Oppressors wrong, the poore mans Contumely,
The pangs of dispriz'd Loue, the Lawes delay,
The insolence of Office, and the Spurnes
That patient merit of the vnworthy takes,
When he himselfe might his Quietus make
With a bare Bodkin?" That is a potent argument which calls for us not to be.

Except, "Who would these Fardles beare
To grunt and sweat vnder a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The vndiscouered Countrey, from whose Borne
No Traueller returnes, Puzels the will,
And makes vs rather beare those illes we haue,
Then flye to others that we know not of." Whether you believe or disbelieve still we cannot know.

"Thus Conscience does make Cowards of vs all,
And thus the Natiue hew of Resolution
Is sicklied o're, with the pale cast of Thought,
And enterprizes of great pith and moment,
With this regard their Currants turne away,
And loose the name of Action."

So although the desire is not to be, it is hard to take that action willingly. The result is that we remain. We be.

Thanks for asking.

X

Given that Hamlet was talking about whether to commit suicide or not, I'm going to have to go with "to be"...!

How about might be?