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William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

1564-1616 was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 37 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

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When we are born, we cry, that we are come To this great stage of fools.

– William Shakespeare

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All that glitters is not gold.

– William Shakespeare

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Niether a borrower nor a lender be.

– William Shakespeare

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See first that the design is wise and just that ascertained, pursue it resolutely do not for one repulse forego the purpose that you resolved to effect.

– William Shakespeare

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The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords In such a just and charitable war.

– William Shakespeare

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There is a tide in the affairs of men Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

– William Shakespeare

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We do not keep the outward form of order, where there is deep disorder in the mind.

– William Shakespeare

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While thou livest keep a good tongue in thy head.

– William Shakespeare

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All the world is a stage and each and every person is a player

– William Shakespeare

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O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't, A brother's murder.

– William Shakespeare

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This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.

– William Shakespeare

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Cowards die many times before their deaths The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.

– William Shakespeare

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I am not bound to please thee with my answers.

– William Shakespeare

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What a piece of work is a man how noble in reason how infinite in faculty in form and moving how express and admirable in action how like an angel in apprehension how like a god

– William Shakespeare

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How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child

– William Shakespeare

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True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.

– William Shakespeare

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I wish you all the joy you can wish.

– William Shakespeare

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To be, or not to be that is the question Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them To die to sleep No more and by a sleep to say we end The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to,--'t is a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep To sleep perchance to dream ay, there's the rub For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of Thus conscience does make cowards of us all And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action.

– William Shakespeare

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For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother tomorrow.

– William Shakespeare

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This above all to thine own self be true.

– William Shakespeare

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The quality of mercy is not strained It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed- It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.

– William Shakespeare

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A horse a horse my kingdom for a horse

– William Shakespeare

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But, for my own part, it was Greek to me.

– William Shakespeare

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The soul of this man is in his clothes.

– William Shakespeare

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Alas, poor Yorick I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times, and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now to mock your own grinning? Quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come.

– William Shakespeare

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Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice take each man's censure but reserve thy judgement.

– William Shakespeare

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Hamlet Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel Polonius By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed. Hamlet Methinks it is like a weasel. Polonius It is backed like a weasel. Hamlet Or like a whale Polonius Very like a whale.

– William Shakespeare

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He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat.

– William Shakespeare

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I must be cruel, only to be kind.

– William Shakespeare

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And since you know you cannot see yourself, so well as by reflection, I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself, that of yourself which you yet know not of.

– William Shakespeare

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Foolery, Sir, does walk about the orb like the sun; it shines everywhere.

– William Shakespeare

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For they are yet ear-kissing arguments.

– William Shakespeare

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I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.

– William Shakespeare

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In false quarrels there is no true valor.

– William Shakespeare

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The game is up.

– William Shakespeare

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To wilful men, the injuries that they themselves procure must be their schoolmasters.

– William Shakespeare

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To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

– William Shakespeare

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When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.

– William Shakespeare

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Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.

– William Shakespeare

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And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray's In deepest consequence.

– William Shakespeare

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Be great in act, as you have been in thought.

– William Shakespeare

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A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry But were we burdened with like weight of pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain.

– William Shakespeare

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A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry; But were we burdened with like weight of pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain.

– William Shakespeare

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All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.

– William Shakespeare

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O Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo

– William Shakespeare

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The course of true love was never easy.

– William Shakespeare

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I must be cruel, only to be kind Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.

– William Shakespeare

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Blow, blow, thou winter wind Thou art not so unkind, As man's ingratitude.

– William Shakespeare

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I pray thee cease thy counsel, Which falls into mine ears as profitless as water in a sieve.

– William Shakespeare

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O, now, for ever Farewell the tranquil mind farewell content Farewell the plumed troop and the big wars That make ambition virtue O, farewell Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump, The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, The royal banner, and all quality, Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats The immortal Jove's dread clamours counterfeit, Farewell Othello's occupation's gone

– William Shakespeare

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...O brave new world, That has such people in't!

– William Shakespeare

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Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.

– William Shakespeare

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A plague o' both your houses

– William Shakespeare

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And many strokes, though with a little axe, Hew down and fell the hardest-timbered oak.

– William Shakespeare

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But then I sigh, and with a piece of scripture,Tell them that God bids us do good for evil.And thus I clothe my naked villainyWith odd old ends stolen forth of holy writ,And seem I a saint, when most I play the Devil.

– William Shakespeare

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He is not great who is not greatly good.

– William Shakespeare

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It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.

– William Shakespeare

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Our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.

– William Shakespeare

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Simply the thing that I am shall make me live.

– William Shakespeare

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The play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

– William Shakespeare

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To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first.

– William Shakespeare

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No legacy is so rich as honesty.

– William Shakespeare

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Be not afraid of greatness some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

– William Shakespeare

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Glory is like a circle in the water, which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, till by broad spreading it disperses to naught.

– William Shakespeare

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Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.

– William Shakespeare

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Nothing will come of nothing.

– William Shakespeare

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They say, best men are moulded out of faults, And, for the most, become much more the better For being a little bad.

– William Shakespeare

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So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

– William Shakespeare

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The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

– William Shakespeare

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And thus I clothe my naked villainy With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

– William Shakespeare

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Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying Nothing.

– William Shakespeare

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O for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.

– William Shakespeare

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You cram these words into mine ears against the stomach of my sense.

– William Shakespeare

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What's done can't be undone.

– William Shakespeare

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This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands,-- This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

– William Shakespeare

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Excellent wretch Perdition catch my soul, But I do love thee and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.

– William Shakespeare

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This fellow's wise enough to play the fool, And to do that well craves a kind of wit.

– William Shakespeare

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What's in a name That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.

– William Shakespeare

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Angels and ministers of grace defend us.Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned,Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell,Be thy intents wicked, or charitable,Thou com'st in such a questionable shape,That I will speak to thee.

– William Shakespeare

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Lady you bereft me of all words, Only my blood speaks to you in my veins, And there is such confusion in my powers.

– William Shakespeare

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The rest is silence.

– William Shakespeare

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It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.

– William Shakespeare

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Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.

– William Shakespeare

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Lay on, Macduff, And damn'd be him that first cries, Hold, enough

– William Shakespeare

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A little more than kin, and less than kind.

– William Shakespeare

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Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.

– William Shakespeare

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He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him if stronger, spare thyself.

– William Shakespeare

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In a false quarrel there is no true valour.

– William Shakespeare

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Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest

– William Shakespeare

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The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.

– William Shakespeare

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First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.

– William Shakespeare

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For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard...

– William Shakespeare

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Hereafter, in a better world than this, I shall desire more love and knowledge of you.

– William Shakespeare

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His life was gentle and the elements So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up, And say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN

– William Shakespeare

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I thank God I am as honest as any man living that is an old man and no honester than I.

– William Shakespeare

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It is not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after.

– William Shakespeare

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Jesters do often prove prophets.

– William Shakespeare

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My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

– William Shakespeare

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Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls Who steals my purse steals trash 'tis something, nothing 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him And makes me poor indeed.

– William Shakespeare

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Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none.

– William Shakespeare

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The worst is not So long as we can say, This is the worst.

– William Shakespeare

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How far that little candle throws his beams So shines a good deed in a weary world.

– William Shakespeare

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Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners.

– William Shakespeare

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My meaning in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me that he is sufficient.

– William Shakespeare

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A jest's prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Of him that makes it.

– William Shakespeare

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By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. Open, locks, Whoever knocks

– William Shakespeare

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Simply the thing I am shall make me live.

– William Shakespeare

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An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told.

– William Shakespeare

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Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain

– William Shakespeare

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Good night, good night parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

– William Shakespeare

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'T is better to be lowly born, And range with humble livers in content, Than to be perked up in a glistering grief, And wear a golden sorrow.

– William Shakespeare

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'Tis neither here nor there.

– William Shakespeare

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He was my friend, faithful, and just to me, but Brutus says, he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, whose ransoms did the general coffers fill. Did this in Caesar seem ambitious. When the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept. Ambition should me made of sterner stuff, yet Brutus says, he was ambitious and Brutus is an honorable man.

– William Shakespeare

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Lord, what fools these mortals be

– William Shakespeare

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Now join your hands, and with your hands your hearts.

– William Shakespeare

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The sands are number'd that make up my life.

– William Shakespeare

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Your face is a book, where men may read strange matters.

– William Shakespeare

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Begin at Act II, Scene 2, line 242: Royal wench, she did lay great Caesar's sword to bed--he plowed her and she cropt.

– William Shakespeare

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Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood.

– William Shakespeare

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Cowards die many times before their deathsThe valiant never taste of death but once.

– William Shakespeare

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Each present joy or sorrow seems the chief.

– William Shakespeare

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Et tu, Brute

– William Shakespeare

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I am wealthy in my friends.

– William Shakespeare

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I have heard of your paintings too, well enough God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another.

– William Shakespeare

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Out, damned spot out, I say

– William Shakespeare

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Pray you now, forget and forgive.

– William Shakespeare

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Some men never seem to grow old. Always active in thought, always ready to adopt new ideas, they are never chargeable with foggyism. Satisfied, yet ever dissatisfied, settled, yet ever unsettled, they always enjoy the best of what is, are the first to find the best of what will be.

– William Shakespeare

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Strong reasons make strong actions.

– William Shakespeare

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Truth is truth; To the end of reckoning.

– William Shakespeare

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Age cannot wither her, nor custom staleHer infinite variety other women cloyThe appetites they feed, but she makes hungryWhere most she satisfies.

– William Shakespeare

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Every man has business and desire, Such as it is.

– William Shakespeare

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Thoughts are but dreams till their effects be tried.

– William Shakespeare

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I have not slept one wink.

– William Shakespeare

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Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York, And all the clouds that loured upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths, Our bruised arms hung up for monuments, Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings, Our dreadful marches to delightful measures. Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute. But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks, Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass I, that am rudely stamped, and want love's majesty To strut before a wanton ambling nymph I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion, Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, And that so lamely and unfashionable That dogs bark at me as I halt by them,-- Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace, Have no delight to pass away the time, Unless to spy my shadow in the sun.

– William Shakespeare

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Friendship is constant in all other things. Save in the office and affairs of love. Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues. Let every eye negotiate for itself, and trust no agent.

– William Shakespeare

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Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo Deny thy father, and refuse thy name...

– William Shakespeare

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The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to plague us.

– William Shakespeare

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Self-loving is not so vile a sin, my liege, as self-neglecting.

– William Shakespeare

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Double, double toil and trouble Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

– William Shakespeare

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Brevity is the soul of wit.

– William Shakespeare

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How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be acted over In states unborn and accents yet unknown

– William Shakespeare

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My salad days, When I was green in judgment.

– William Shakespeare

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O, woe is me, To have seen what I have seen, see what I see

– William Shakespeare

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Yet do I fear thy nature It is too full o' the milk of human kindness.

– William Shakespeare

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The course of true love never did run smooth.

– William Shakespeare

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As flies to wanton boys, are we to the godsThey kill us for their sport.

– William Shakespeare

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If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly.

– William Shakespeare

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How use doth breed a habit in a man.

– William Shakespeare

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Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear.

– William Shakespeare

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This England never did, nor never shall, Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror.

– William Shakespeare

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Beware Of entrance to a quarrel but being in, Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy rich, not gaudy For the apparel oft proclaims the man.

– William Shakespeare

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I hate ingratitude more in a man than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness, or any taint of vice whose strong corruption inhabits our frail blood.

– William Shakespeare

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See first that the design is wise and just: that ascertained, pursue it resolutely; do not for one repulse forego the purpose that you resolved to effect.

– William Shakespeare

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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

– William Shakespeare

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For aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth.

– William Shakespeare

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Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them The good is oft interred with their bones.

– William Shakespeare

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In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility.

– William Shakespeare

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When griping grief the heart doth wound, and doleful dumps the mind oppress, then music, with her silver sound, with speedy help doth lend redress.

– William Shakespeare

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Action is eloquence.

– William Shakespeare

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Frailty, thy name is woman

– William Shakespeare

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I am not merry but I do beguile The thing I am, by seeming otherwise.

– William Shakespeare

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I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart but the saying is true 'The empty vessel makes the greatest sound'.

– William Shakespeare

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I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience.

– William Shakespeare

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I have Immortal longings in me.

– William Shakespeare

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It is meant that noble minds keep ever with their likes; for who so firm that cannot be seduced.

– William Shakespeare

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My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

– William Shakespeare

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Small to greater matters must give way.

– William Shakespeare

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The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.

– William Shakespeare

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The little foolery that wise men have makes a great show.

– William Shakespeare

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You Speak an infinite deal of nothing

– William Shakespeare

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A hit, a very palpable hit.

– William Shakespeare

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A man in all the world's new fashion planted, That hath a mint of phrases in his brain.

– William Shakespeare

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A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

– William Shakespeare

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Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety.

– William Shakespeare

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Alas, poor Yorick I knew him Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy...

– William Shakespeare

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All the world's a stage, and all men and women merely players;

– William Shakespeare

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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrance. And one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages

– William Shakespeare

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Although the last, not least.

– William Shakespeare

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Assume a virtue, if you have it not.

– William Shakespeare

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Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.

– William Shakespeare

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Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go.

– William Shakespeare

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Beware the Ides of March.

– William Shakespeare

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But, soft what light through yonder window breaks It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

– William Shakespeare

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Cowards die a thousand deaths. The valiant taste of death but once.

– William Shakespeare

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Cruel to be kind

– William Shakespeare

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Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt love

– William Shakespeare

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Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt love

– William Shakespeare

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For Brutus is an honourable man So are they all, all honourable men.

– William Shakespeare

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For we which now behold these present days have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.

– William Shakespeare

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Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood, garnish'd and deck'd in modest compliment, not working with the eye without the ear, and but in purged judgement trusting neither Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem.

– William Shakespeare

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God bless thee and put meekness in thy mind, love, charity, obedience, and true duty

– William Shakespeare

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God bless thee; and put meekness in thy mind, love, charity, obedience, and true duty!

– William Shakespeare

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He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.

– William Shakespeare

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He hath eaten me out of house and home.

– William Shakespeare

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He is winding the watch of his wit by and by it will strike.

– William Shakespeare

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He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stolen, Let him not know 't, and he's not robb'd at all.

– William Shakespeare

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He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself.

– William Shakespeare

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Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

– William Shakespeare

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His life was gentle; and the elements So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up, And say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!

– William Shakespeare

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How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen, What old December's bareness everywhere

– William Shakespeare

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How poor are they who have not patience What wound did ever heal but by degrees.

– William Shakespeare

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How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees.

– William Shakespeare

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I dote on his very absence.

– William Shakespeare

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I had rather have a fool make me merry, than experience make me sad.

– William Shakespeare

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I met a fool I' the forest, a motley fool.

– William Shakespeare

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I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.

– William Shakespeare

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I pray you bear me henceforth from the noise and rumour of the field, where I may think the remnant of my thoughts in peace, and part of this body and my soul with contemplation and devout desires.

– William Shakespeare

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I understand a fury in your words, But not the words.

– William Shakespeare

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I will wear my heart upon my sleeve For daws to peck at.

– William Shakespeare

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I wish you well and so I take my leave, I Pray you know me when we meet again.

– William Shakespeare

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I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick - Nobody marks you...

– William Shakespeare

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I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed

– William Shakespeare

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If music be the food of love, play on.

– William Shakespeare

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If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, the appetite may sicken and so die

– William Shakespeare

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Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.

– William Shakespeare

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In time we hate that which we often fear.

– William Shakespeare

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It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves

– William Shakespeare

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It is the bright day that brings forth the adder, and that craves wary walking.

– William Shakespeare

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It is the mind that makes the body rich; and as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, so honor peereth in the meanest habit.

– William Shakespeare

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Lady you berefit me of all words, Only my blood speaks to you in my veins, And there is such confusion in my powers.

– William Shakespeare

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Let me have men about me that are fat, Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look He thinks too much such men are dangerous.

– William Shakespeare

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Let the coming hour overflow with joy, and let pleasure drown the brim.

– William Shakespeare

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Life is a tale told by an idiot -- full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

– William Shakespeare

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Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.

– William Shakespeare

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Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore; So do our minutes hasten to their end.

– William Shakespeare

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Love all, trust few, do wrong to none.

– William Shakespeare

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Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind. And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

– William Shakespeare

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Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.

– William Shakespeare

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Mine honour is my life both grow in one take honour from me and my life is done.

– William Shakespeare

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Mine honour is my life; both grow in one; take honour from me and my life is done.

– William Shakespeare

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Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.

– William Shakespeare

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Neither a borrower nor a lender be For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

– William Shakespeare

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No, 'tis slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie All corners of the world.

– William Shakespeare

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Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes?

– William Shakespeare

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O, beware, my lord, of jealousy It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on.

– William Shakespeare

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Oft expectation fails, and most oft where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest; and despair most sits.

– William Shakespeare

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Oh God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!

– William Shakespeare

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Oh, that way madness lies let me shun that.

– William Shakespeare

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Oh, thou hast a damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me Hal, God forgive thee for it. Before I knew thee Hal, I knew nothing, and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked.

– William Shakespeare

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Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close the wall up with our English dead In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.

– William Shakespeare

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Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.

– William Shakespeare

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Our doubts are traitors,And make us lose the good we oft might winBy fearing to attempt.

– William Shakespeare

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Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie.

– William Shakespeare

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Pity is the virtue of the law, and none but tyrants use it cruelly.

– William Shakespeare

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Pity is the virture of the law, and none but tyrants use it cruelly.

– William Shakespeare

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Reputation is an idle and most false imposition oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.

– William Shakespeare

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Silence is the perfectest herald of joy I were but little happy, if I could say how much.

– William Shakespeare

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Since Cleopatra died, I have liv'd in such dishonour that the gods Detest my baseness.

– William Shakespeare

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Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.

– William Shakespeare

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So may he rest, his faults lie gently on him

– William Shakespeare

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So may he rest, his faults lie gently on him!

– William Shakespeare

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Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.

– William Shakespeare

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Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

– William Shakespeare

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Speak to me as to thy thinkings, As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of thoughts The worst of words.

– William Shakespeare

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Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.

– William Shakespeare

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Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.

– William Shakespeare

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Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; the thief doth fear each bush an officer.

– William Shakespeare

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Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like a toad, though ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in its head.

– William Shakespeare

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The fashion wears out more apparel than the man.

– William Shakespeare

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The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our Stars, but in ourselves

– William Shakespeare

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The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our Stars, but in ourselves

– William Shakespeare

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The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day Is crept into the bosom of the sea.

– William Shakespeare

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The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good.

– William Shakespeare

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The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils. The motions of his spirit are dull as night, and his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted.

– William Shakespeare

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The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords, in such a just and charitable war.

– William Shakespeare

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The Possible's slow fuse is lit By the Imagination.

– William Shakespeare

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The soul's joy lies in doing.

– William Shakespeare

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The trust I have is in mine innocence, and therefore am I bold and resolute.

– William Shakespeare

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Their understanding Begins to swell and the approaching tide Will shortly fill the reasonable shores That now lie foul and muddy.

– William Shakespeare

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There is a method to madness!

– William Shakespeare

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There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so

– William Shakespeare

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There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

– William Shakespeare

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There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things.

– William Shakespeare

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They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.

– William Shakespeare

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This above all TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE. And it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

– William Shakespeare

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This above all; to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

– William Shakespeare

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Those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country, as the behavior of the country is most mockable at the court.

– William Shakespeare

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Thou art all the comfort, The Gods will diet me with.

– William Shakespeare

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Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge of thine own cause.

– William Shakespeare

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Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.

– William Shakespeare

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Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.

– William Shakespeare

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Though she be but little, she is fierce.

– William Shakespeare

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Thy words, I grant are bigger, for I wear not, my dagger in my mouth.

– William Shakespeare

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Time hath a wallet at his back, wherein he puts. Alms for oblivion, a great-sized monster of ingratitudes.

– William Shakespeare

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To be a well-flavored man is the gift of fortune, but to write or read comes by nature.

– William Shakespeare

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To be, or not to be

– William Shakespeare

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To be, or not to be, that is the question.

– William Shakespeare

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To business that we love, we rise betime and go to't with delight.

– William Shakespeare

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To die, to sleep --To sleep, perchance to dream, ay there's the rub,For in that sleep of death what dreams may comeWhen we have shuffled off this mortal coil,Must give us pause there's the respectThat makes calamity of so long life.

– William Shakespeare

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To mourn a mischief that is past and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on.

– William Shakespeare

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To thine own self be true -; And it must follow as the night the day; Thou canst not be false to any man

– William Shakespeare

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To Thine Ownself Be True

– William Shakespeare

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True friendship is always a sweet responsible, never an opportunity.

– William Shakespeare

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True is it that we have seen better days.

– William Shakespeare

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Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

– William Shakespeare

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Virtue and genuine graces in themselves speak what no words can utter.

– William Shakespeare

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Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.

– William Shakespeare

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We are advertis'd by our loving friends.

– William Shakespeare

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We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.

– William Shakespeare

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We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

– William Shakespeare

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We know what we are, but not what we may be.

– William Shakespeare

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We know what we are, but not what we maybe

– William Shakespeare

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Weigh'st thy words before thou givest them breath.

– William Shakespeare

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What a deformed thief this fashion is.

– William Shakespeare

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What's mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.

– William Shakespeare

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When he is best, he is a little worse than a man and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

– William Shakespeare

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When holy and devout religious men Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence So sweet is zealous contemplation.

– William Shakespeare

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When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know she lies.

– William Shakespeare

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Words are easy, like the wind; faithful friends are hard to find

– William Shakespeare

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Share your thoughts on William Shakespeare's quotes with the community:

2 Comments

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Alcon John Ijan
There's one quote that is not present in here:
"Let them obey who know not howto rule" -William Shakespheare
I'm asking what is the meaning of this quote?
LikeReply 16 years ago
Frances Mattingly
This is wonderful, both entertaining and educational.
LikeReply 27 years ago
- STANDS4
  Thanks Frances!
  LikeReply 17 years ago

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"William Shakespeare Quotes." Quotes.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <https://www.quotes.net/authors/William+Shakespeare+Quotes>.

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