"Words without thoughts never to heaven go"
Context and Language Videos
Act 3,
Scene 3
Lines 94-98

A discussion of the irony in the end of Act 3, Scene 3 of myShakespeare's Hamlet.

Hamlet

And that his soul may be as damned and black
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays.
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.    
[Exit.]

Claudius

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.    
[Exit.]
Video Transcript: 

RALPH: Though Claudius could say the prayer, he could not bring himself to sincerely repent; therefore his appeal for absolution would have gone unheard.

SARAH: Ironically, had Hamlet killed him now, Claudius would not have gone to heaven, but to hell.