The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but…

The line comes in Act I, scene 2 of Julius Caesar, during the feast of the Lupercal. While the crowd cheers Caesar offstage, Cassius takes Brutus aside to turn him against the man who is becoming master of Rome. He recalls saving Caesar from drowning in the Tiber and seeing him shake with fever in Spain, crying for drink “As a sick girl”. At another shout, Brutus fears new honours for Caesar; Cassius answers that Caesar bestrides the world “Like a Colossus” while “we petty men” walk under his legs.

If he and Brutus are underlings, Cassius goes on, the stars, which astrology held to govern human lives, are not to blame: they are. He then weighs the two names to show that “Brutus” is worth as much as “Caesar”. It is the first step towards Caesar’s murder.

Shakespeare wrote the play around 1599, drawing on Plutarch. The line remains a classic call to personal responsibility, and it gave John Green the title of his novel The Fault in Our Stars (2012).

Julius Caesar, Act I, scene 2 (Cassius), 1599

Checked word for word in the work itself.

Read the passage in the work