Shakespearean Philosophy?

There are those people, I am told, who read those tomes of the words of the greats and try to derive the philosophy whereby to lead their lives. And then there are those people who know what they are going to do with their lives and hunt , if at all, through the tomes of the greats to support their philosophy. In the normal course, on any issue, I am in the minority (of one, more often than not) but this once I think I am right in the middle of the multitudinous hordes that follow the latter option.
Some are born great; some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them
Old Billy boy hit the nail on the head there - or so I prefer to think. If you are not born great (and having made history as the heaviest newborn in the hospital's existence does not count because we are talking 'great' here not 'gross') that second option is just too much trouble. Achieve greatness, forsooth! If one had to labor all his life to achieve it, it would be too late to learn what to do with the damn thing once it is achieved. So I, like the vast majority of my fellow-humans, wait to have greatness thrust upon me.
Let me have about me men that are fat; Sleek-headed men as of sleep of nights; yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look; he thinks too much; such men are dangerous
If THAT is what Caesar wanted to have, it must be a good thing to be. So, I went about acquiring a sleek head (and what can be sleeker than a bald head, pray?) and ate and drank my way to fatness. (Upon what meat doth this our Suresh feed that he is grown so great, was the cry among my friends - though in this case 'great' really did mean 'gross'). Also, since I lacked the equipment to think with anyway, I could never be dangerous. Alas - Caesar is long dead and the world descended to such depravity that thin and geek are actually the in things now.
The story of my life - I am always a step out of phase with Fashion. The tale of the bell-bottomed trousers that I bought after long dilly-dallying and just as it comprehensively went out of fashion is another of my life's tragedies. I still preserve it in the vain hope that Fashion will turn full-circle but, alas, that fickle goddess has not deemed fit to smile on them again. Now, of course, I will need to take them apart and have the bottoms stitched as the waist portion if I am to hope to get into them.
The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones
Ah! And, in my case, the good would probably be burned with my bones and not even be available for a future archaeologist to dig out and keep reverently in a museum. Shakespeare, therefore, tells me that you can only be remembered for the evil that you do (since it is always spicier gossip to call someone - even long dead - bad names and BORING to be praising someone). I have had no real hankering to be remembered by posterity (What is the point in cute young girls talking in shivery whispers about me when I am long dead? It is NOW that I want the attention) and, so, I decided that it was best to let the world go its way while I went mine.
All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand
Now THAT was not a quote I lived by though most people attributed it to be the guiding description of my being. Of course, the 'little hand' was first 'little boy' and then became 'gross man' over the course of years. Now, just because I sweat a little (all right, a lot, you bunch of literal b*******!), you cannot be defaming me by attributing the sort of body odor that even Axe cannot cure.
Above all else to thine own self be true
Now that, I have decided, will be a great guiding philosophy. It allows me full leeway to decide what "mine own self" is at any point in time so that I can be true to it without feeling any pangs of guilt.
NOW, I know why old Will Shakespeare is considered THE literary great!