APAD: Screw your courage to the sticking place

Meaning: Be firm and resolute.

Background:  This line is from Shakespeare's Macbeth, 1605:

 

     Lady Macbeth:

     `We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we'll not fail.'

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

If I were Macbeth, I'd take a long cruise vacation or maybe even retire right

there after hearing the witches. "Look," I'd tell the lady. "Now that I've got

the mandate, I don't need to lift a finger. Didn't ask for it. Nay. It's fate.

What courage? Big hassle. Not worth it. Off Duncan? You outta ya mind?" and if

she was still there, "Read books and chill, enjoy physical labor, and memento

mori. 'Ease your cravings and harden your bones.' Give life a chance."

所有跟帖： 

• "Double, double toil & trouble; Fire burn & cauldron bubble" -最西边的岛上- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/25/2025 postreply 08:18:45

• Agree w/ U. just not everyone understands/believesStoicism -最西边的岛上- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/25/2025 postreply 08:23:35

• Nothing's as it's cracked up to be :-) -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 07/25/2025 postreply 09:38:48

• was shocked at first,50% use of screw for me is ruin, slang -移花接木- ♂ (0 bytes) () 07/25/2025 postreply 09:43:14

• yeah, it is straight -移花接木- ♂ (483 bytes) () 07/25/2025 postreply 09:44:02

• I used to volunteer filling tax returns when a girl came up -7grizzly- ♂ (719 bytes) () 07/25/2025 postreply 09:51:32

• Remember you must die. True. Mori = death?, mortality -暖冬cool夏- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/25/2025 postreply 09:49:23

• Something like that. 除死之外没大事 :-) -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 07/25/2025 postreply 09:55:27

• 除生死之外无大事，加个“生”字，当然原文的意思是你说的这个。向死而生：） -暖冬cool夏- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/25/2025 postreply 10:04:56

• b4 death comes, "Give life a chance" ;-) -最西边的岛上- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/25/2025 postreply 10:07:13