To be, or not to be

Cultural  

1. Words from the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. They begin a famous speech by Prince Hamlet in which he considers suicide as an escape from his troubles: “To be, or not to be: that is the question.”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

To be, or not to be

To be or not to be, that is the question for a solo version of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2026

Wisely, the production acknowledges all the digital trickery, with Benny's avatar declaring: "To be or not to be, that is no longer the question," during an early interlude.

From BBC ● May 26, 2022

To be, or not to be, ay there’s the point, To Die, to sleep, is that all?

From New York Times ● Nov. 24, 2021

And at this point I'm thinking of "Hamlet" and our democracy: To be, or not to be.

From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2021

I tried feeling those atoms, tried to sense if there was anything inside me that might inspire me to burst out with To be, or not to be or Wherefore art thou, but I couldn’t.

From "The Thing About Jellyfish" by Ali Benjamin