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Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about To find ourselves dishonourable graves. Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about To find ourselves dishonourable graves. Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Approximate author period: c. 1590 AD · renaissance

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Attribution & collection notes
Author or tradition
William Shakespeare
Attribution: attributed
Country attributed
Not established
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Historical period
Approximate author period: c. 1590 AD · renaissance
author lifetime midpoint
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Recorded source
Familiar Quotations, ninth edition (1905 printing) (1905 AD)

Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 2.

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The voice behind the words.

William Shakespeare: Historical painted portrait

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

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