25 things from this book went into her brain. Here are the first 6.
In Hamlet, Shakespeare has Horatio propose taking what the watchmen saw straight to Hamlet, the one person it concerns, rather than keeping it among themselves.
In Hamlet, the prince says mourning clothes and sighs can be put on like a costume, and that his real grief lies within, past what anyone can show.
In Hamlet, Polonius sends his son off with advice to listen to many people but speak to few, judge carefully, and above all stay true to himself.
In Hamlet, the prince notes how one flaw can cast a shadow over a person's many good qualities in other people's eyes.
In Hamlet, the prince resolves to clear his mind of trivial records and keep only the one thing that matters most to him.
In Hamlet, the prince tells his friend that the world holds more than any one school of thinking has dreamt of, so keep some humility about what you think you know.
In Hamlet, Polonius is so sure he has found the cause of the prince's trouble that he offers to give up his post if he is wrong, and that certainty stops him testing other explanations.
In Hamlet, the prince tells his old schoolfellows that nothing is good or bad except that our thinking makes it so, which shows how the frame we choose shapes how a situation feels.
In Hamlet, the prince doubts a ghost's word, so he stages a play that mirrors the crime and watches the king's reaction. He tests a suspicion before he acts on it.
In Hamlet, the prince's famous soliloquy warns that too much deliberation can drain away resolve, so that bold plans never turn into action.
In Hamlet, the prince tells the players that the point of their craft is to hold a mirror up to nature, and that overdoing it is a fault the thoughtful will always notice.
In Hamlet, the prince praises Horatio for taking fortune's highs and lows with the same even thanks, and says that steady judgement is what he most wants in a friend.
In Hamlet, the play within the play has a king observe that resolutions made in the heat of strong feeling often fade once the feeling passes.
In Hamlet, the prince refuses to be played like a pipe by the men sent to read his moods, and insists that he cannot be made to sound a tune he does not choose.
In Hamlet, Claudius finds he cannot pray his guilt away while he still keeps what the crime won him, so sincere repair means giving up what was taken.
In Hamlet, the prince refuses to strike his uncle while he prays, judging that a deed done for a cheap advantage at the wrong moment is not true justice.
In Hamlet, the prince tells his mother that covering a rotten problem with a surface fix only lets the rot spread unseen, so real repair means owning the fault and stopping what feeds it.
In Hamlet, the prince advises his mother to break a bad habit one night at a time, because each refusal makes the next one easier, and habit can in the end reshape a person's nature.
In Hamlet, the prince shames himself for delaying, saying that overthinking the outcome is part wisdom and mostly cowardice, and that real greatness acts when the stakes are truly at hand.
In Hamlet, the prince jokes over a skull that a lawyer's endless deals and land purchases all end in the same dirt, a reminder that every fortune is levelled in the end.
In Hamlet, the prince holds Yorick's skull and remembers the jester by his jokes and warmth, not by his death. Shakespeare shows how we keep people alive by who they were.
In Hamlet, the prince finds that a rash move he made without a plan saved him when his careful plots fell apart, and concludes that we can plan, but we cannot fully shape where things end.
In Hamlet, the prince accepts that the hour of any event is beyond our control, so being ready matters far more than trying to pick the moment.
In Hamlet, the dying prince asks his friend to tell his story truly to those who have not yet understood it, so that a good name is not left to rumour.
In Hamlet, the schemes of the plotters fall back on their own heads, a reminder that cunning used against others often returns to the one who devised it.
