What do we mean when we say it today?
Legend has it that it was Humphrey Bogart himself who proposed the final line of The Maltese Falcon. But perhaps he should have kept a copy of the play closer to hand because he says "the stuff that dreams are made of" (whereas Shakespeare actually uses "on" as the final word.) We're not picky or anything, but we sure know a bunch of scholars who would say that one word matters.
It didn't matter to the American Film Institute though, because that quote landed Bogey on the Top 100 Movie Quotes of all time. In at number 14 to be exact.
This phrase was also quoted in a more recent movie, My Week with Marilyn. And it's possible that even the children's song "Row, row, row your boat" was inspired by this line by the Bard. After all, the final line "Life is but a dream" seems awful close to Prospero's words, don't you think?
Sure, this quote is used a lot, but the truth is whenever "We such stuff as dreams are made on" is used, people know they're quoting Shakespeare. (Or maybe even Bogart.)