Polonius Quote One of the more famous quotes in William Shakespeare's Hamlet not spoken by the titular character is given early on in the play by Polonius, adviser to the king and father of Ophelia and Laertes, when he instructs his son on how to behave during his travels abroad. Polonius' instruction is so oft quoted because it plays into a certain belief regarding honesty and self-expression that is wholly unobserved in reality, offering an eloquent justification for maintaining one's sense of self by falsely insinuating that being honest with oneself automatically precludes one from being dishonest with others. This idea is ridiculous, and looking at other instances from the play itself will help to demonstrate that being true to oneself often means being dishonest with others, because one may quite easily be honest with oneself about one's dishonesty to others.

Polonius' instruction to Laertes comes after a long list of dos and don'ts regarding proper behavior, including everything from how flashy clothes can be to the dangers of lending or borrowing money. Concluding his advice, Polonius states "This above all: to thine ownself be true, / And it must follow, as the night the day, / Thou canst not then be false to any man" (1.3.78-80). The simple foolishness of Polonius' thought should be obvious to just about anyone who has ever effectively misled another,...

Polonius actually stages the scene, instructing Ophelia to "Read on this book; / That show of such an exercise may color / Your loneliness" in order to better attract and manipulate Hamlet (3.1.44-46). In this case, Polonius is being true to himself by being a dishonest, sycophantic villain, demonstrating that for certain people to be true to themselves by definition means being dishonest to others. One might argue that Polonius is not really being honest with himself (it seems unlikely he would ever call himself a sycophant) and as such this does not disprove his initial quote, but looking at additional instances of self-honesty resulting in dishonesty with others will disprove Polonius' statement beyond any doubt.
Perhaps the most obvious disproval of Polonius' quote comes in the form of Hamlet himself, who is the most privately honest and publicly dishonest character in the entire play, perhaps except for the king (who will be addressed shortly). At the end of his first soliloquy…