We are such stuff / As dreams are made on

1. A line from the play The Tempest, by William Shakespeare; it continues, “and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep.” It is spoken by the magician Prospero. He has just made a large group of spirits vanish and is reminding his daughter and her fiancé that mortal life also ends quickly.

Example Sentences

“And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-cappped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And like this insubstantial pageant faded Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on” is a Shakespearean maxim emblazoned on T-shirts and trotted out in high school yearbooks, but the greeting card sentiment can stand only if the line isn’t quoted in full.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

As the main character Prospero says, “We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

Read more on Seattle Times

In standard Picard fashion, as he unplugs Data's consciousness for one last time, he recites a famous line from William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest," uttered by the magician Prospero: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life, is rounded with a sleep."

Read more on Salon

As that other Prospero once observed: “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

Read more on The Guardian