TO BE OR NOT TO BE 解释为生存还是毁灭——《哈姆雷特》（英-莎士比亚）中的经典独白。原文如下：
To be, or not to be: that is the question,
Whether it's nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die,to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, it's a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep.
To sleep, perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied or with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.
拓展内容：
《哈姆雷特》的做事是威廉·莎士比亚（William Shakespeare )，公元1564年4月23日生于英格兰沃里克郡斯特拉福镇，1616年5月3日（儒略历4月23日）病逝。英国文艺复兴时期杰出的戏剧家和诗人。
《哈姆雷特》著名悲剧之一，是莎士比亚最负盛名的剧本，同《麦克白》、《李尔王》和《奥赛罗》一起组成莎士比亚“四大悲剧”。在《哈姆雷特》中，复仇的故事中交织着爱恨情愁。同时，哈姆雷特也是该剧主人公丹麦王子的名字。喜剧有《威尼斯商人》等。是“英国戏剧之父”，本·琼斯称他为“时代的灵魂”，马克思称他为“人类最伟大的天才之一”。被赋予了“人类文学奥林匹克山上的宙斯”。