What do we mean when we say it today?
Whatever the reason, the phrase "all the world's a stage" lives on even today. It has been quoted in everything from Star Trek: The Next Generation to Ugly Betty to Calvin and Hobbes. Oscar Wilde even put his own spin on it by saying that "the world is a stage, and the play is badly cast" in one of his short stories. And V for Vendetta took it to a whole new level by declaring "all the world's a stage, and everything else is vaudeville." But we think that one was really more about the chance to put another V-word in there.
It's clear that people love to quote this one liner, but are they just saying it because it sounds clever, or because they think that something about it resonates with us still today?
Well, it depends. We think that most of the times this quote is used, people aren't really referring to the seven ages of man. After all, the idea that men and women are merely just going through those seven phases of life isn't really that popular today.