There is no official ranking, but the most famous is, by far, the opening of Hamlet's soliloquy: "To be, or not to be, that is the question" (Hamlet, Act III, scene 1). Hamlet is one of the most quoted works in the English language.
Other much-repeated lines: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose" (Romeo and Juliet, Act II, scene 2); "Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar" (Julius Caesar, Act III, scene 1); and, from Macbeth, life as "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" (Act V, scene 5).
The most beautiful is a matter of taste, and there is no right answer. Among the most remembered candidates is "All the world's a stage, / And all the men and women merely players," spoken by the character Jaques in As You Like It (Act II, scene 7). Those who prefer the beauty of sound tend to choose the rose from Romeo and Juliet; those who prefer bitterness choose the "tomorrow" speech from Macbeth.
One caveat: each of these lines gains its full weight only in the scene in which it is spoken, by whom, and to whom. Read on their own, they become posters.
On Clavis: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth.
Sources
- Wikipedia (inglês): Hamlet
- Folger Shakespeare Library: Hamlet, Ato III, cena 1 (texto integral)
- Folger Shakespeare Library: Romeu e Julieta, Ato II, cena 2 (texto integral)
- Folger Shakespeare Library: Júlio César, Ato III, cena 1 (texto integral)
- Folger Shakespeare Library: Macbeth, Ato V, cena 5 (texto integral)
- Folger Shakespeare Library: Como Gostais, Ato II, cena 7 (texto integral)