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William Shakespeare Quotes: 135

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

    As You Like It
  • Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.

    All's Well That Ends Well
  • Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

    A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • The course of true love never did run smooth.

  • Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.

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

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

    Twelfth Night
  • There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.

  • As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.

  • The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.

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

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

  • 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.

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

  • Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.

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

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

    Twelfth Night
  • Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

    The Tempest
  • When he shall die,Take him and cut him out in little stars,And he will make the face of heaven so fineThat all the world will be in love with nightAnd pay no worship to the garish sun.

    Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare Collection)
  • We know what we are, but not what we may be.

  • 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.

    As You Like It
  • Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find.

    The Passionate Pilgrim
  • You speak an infinite deal of nothing.

    The Merchant of Venice
  • 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.

    Julius Caesar
  • My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break.

    The Taming of the Shrew
  • Though she be but little, she is fierce!

    A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.

    Macbeth
  • My bounty is as boundless as the sea,My love as deep; the more I give to thee,The more I have, for both are infinite.

    Romeo and Juliet
  • These violent delights have violent endsAnd in their triump die, like fire and powderWhich, as they kiss, consume

    Romeo and Juliet
  • My only love sprung from my only hate!Too early seen unknown, and known too late!Prodigious birth of love it is to me,That I must love a loathed enemy.

  • Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.

  • 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 foolsThe 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 taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.

    Macbeth
  • Lord, what fools these mortals be!

    A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • thus with a kiss I die

    Romeo and Juliet
  • Don't waste your love on somebody, who doesn't value it.

    Romeo and Juliet
  • Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

    Romeo and Juliet
  • I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.

  • With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.

    The Merchant of Venice
  • This life, which had been the tomb of his virtue and of his honour, is 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.

  • For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

    Romeo and Juliet
  • Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake- its everything except what it is! (Act 1, scene 1)

    Romeo and Juliet
  • They do not love that do not show their love.

    The Two Gentlemen of Verona
  • Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?

  • Life ... is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.

    Macbeth
  • Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove.O no, it is an ever-fixed markThat looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wand'ring bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken."(Sonnet 116)

    Shakespeare's Sonnets
  • How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.

    The Merchant of Venice
  • And yet,to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.

    A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly. then your love would also change.

    Romeo and Juliet
  • I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.

    Much Ado About Nothing
  • What's done cannot be undone.

    Macbeth
  • Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.

    Romeo and Juliet
  • O serpent heart hid with a flowering face!Did ever a dragon keep so fair a cave?Beautiful tyrant, feind angelical, dove feather raven, wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of devinest show, just opposite to what thou justly seemest - A dammed saint, an honourable villain!

    Romeo and Juliet
  • Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow worldLike a Colossus; and we petty menWalk under his huge legs, and peep aboutTo find ourselves dishonourable graves.

    Julius Caesar
  • ...Who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage to make love known?

    Macbeth
  • This above all: to thine own self be true.

    Hamlet
  • If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking and you beat love down.

    Romeo and Juliet
  • O teach me how I should forget to think (1.1.224)

    Romeo and Juliet
  • Sweets to the sweet.

    Hamlet
  • See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. O, that I were a glove upon that hand That I might touch that cheek!

    Romeo and Juliet
  • I do love nothing in the world so well as you- is not that strange?

    Much Ado About Nothing
  • Women may fall when there's no strength in men.Act II

    Romeo and Juliet
  • My soul is in the sky.

    A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • So wise so young, they say, do never live long.

    Richard III
  • These violent delights have violent ends.

    Romeo and Juliet
  • Go wisely and slowly. Those who rush stumble and fall.

    Romeo and Juliet
  • There's an old saying that applies to me: you can't lose a game if you don't play the game. (Act 1, scene 4)

    Romeo and Juliet
  • Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.

    The Complete Sonnets and Poems
  • For which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?

    Much Ado About Nothing
  • O, hereWill I set up my everlasting rest,And shake the yoke of inauspicious starsFrom this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O youThe doors of breath, seal with a righteous kissA dateless bargain to engrossing death!

    Romeo and Juliet
  • Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

    Macbeth
  • He that is thy friend indeed,He will help thee in thy need:If thou sorrow, he will weep;If thou wake, he cannot sleep:Thus of every grief in heartHe with thee doth bear a part.These are certain signs to knowFaithful friend from flattering foe.

    The Passionate Pilgrim
  • And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.

  • If music be the food of love, play on.

    Twelfth Night
  • Of all the wonders that I have heard,It seems to me most strange that men should fear;Seeing death, a necessary end,Will come when it will come.(Act II, Scene 2)

    Julius Caesar
  • [Thine] face is not worth sunburning.

    Henry V
  • I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,To die upon the hand I love so well.

    A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • Under loves heavy burden do I sink.--Romeo

    Romeo and Juliet
  • [Thou] mad mustachio purple-hued maltworms!

    Henry IV: Part 1
  • Like madness is the glory of this life.

    Timon of Athens
  • O, wonder!How many goodly creatures are there here!How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,That has such people in't!

    The Tempest
  • I pray you, do not fall in love with me, for I am falser than vows made in wine.

    As You Like It
  • Love is merely a madness; and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do; and the reason why they are not so punish'd and cured is that the lunacy is soordinary that the whippers are in love too.

    As You Like It
  • love is blindand lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit

    The Merchant of Venice
  • Love moderately. Long love doth so.Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.*Love each other in moderation. That is the key to long-lasting love. Too fast is as bad as too slow.*

    Romeo and Juliet
  • The rest, is silence.

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

    Hamlet
  • Full fathom five thy father lies;Of his bones are coral made;Those are pearls that were his eyes:Nothing of him that doth fade,But doth suffer a sea-changeInto something rich and strange.Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: Ding-dong Hark! now I hear them,—Ding-dong, bell.

    The Tempest
  • Thou art a very ragged Wart.

    Henry IV, Part 2
  • Out, out brief candle, life is but a walking shadow...a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

    Macbeth
  • And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. I would not change it.

    As You Like It
  • His life was gentle; and the elementsSo mixed in him, that Nature might stand upAnd say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!

    Julius Caesar
  • The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?

    Measure for Measure
  • The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred with their bones.

    Julius Caesar
  • Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! And, lips, oh you the doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss a dateless bargain to engrossing death!

    Romeo and Juliet
  • And worse I may be yet: the worst is notSo long as we can say 'This is the worst.

    King Lear
  • There's a divinity that shapes our ends,Rough-hew them how we will.

    Hamlet
  • Journeys end in lovers meeting, Every wise man's son doth know.

    Twelfth Night
  • Death, a necessary end, will come when it will come

    Julius Caesar
  • Life... is a paradise to what we fear of death.

    Measure for Measure
  • Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more!Macbeth does murder sleep, - the innocent sleep;Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care, The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast.

    Macbeth
  • Educated men are so impressive!

    Romeo and Juliet
  • LEONATOWell, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.BEATRICENot till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a pierce of valiant dust? to make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? No, uncle, I'll none: Adam's sons are my brethren; and, truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.

    Much Ado About Nothing
  • Bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible.

    Julius Caesar
  • Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me From mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom.

  • Where is Polonius? HAMLET In heaven. Send hither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i' th' other place yourself. But if indeed you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

    Hamlet
  • The small amount of foolery wise men have makes a great show.

  • true apothecary thy drugs art quick

    Romeo and Juliet
  • Men must endureTheir going hence, even as their coming hither.Ripeness is all.

    King Lear
  • LEONATOWell, then, go you into hell?BEATRICENo, but to the gate; and there will the devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and say 'Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to heaven; here's no place for you maids:' so deliver I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the heavens; he shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry as the day is long.

    Much Ado About Nothing
  • True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings.

  • O for a Muse of fire, that would ascendThe brightest heaven of invention!

    Henry V
  • All days are nights to see till I see thee, And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.

    Shakespeare's Sonnets
  • O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, / That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!

    Julius Caesar
  • If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,By self-example mayst thou be denied.

    Shakespeare's Sonnets
  • whats here a cup closed in my true loves hand poisin i see hath been his timeless end. oh churl drunk all and left no friendly drop to help me after. i will kiss thy lips some poisin doth hang on them, to help me die with a restorative. thy lips are warm.yea noise then ill be brief oh happy dagger this is thy sheath. there rust and let me die.

  • This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven.

    Othello
  • Suffer love! A good ephitet! I do suffer love indeed, for I love thee against my will.

    Much Ado About Nothing
  • I drink to the general joy o’ the whole table."Macbeth

    Macbeth
  • Glendower: I can call the spirits from the vasty deep.Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;But will they come, when you do call for them?

    King Henry IV, Part 1
  • That truth should be silent I had almost forgot. (Enobarbus)

    Antony and Cleopatra
  • Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,So do our minutes hasten to their end;Each changing place with that which goes before,In sequent toil all forwards do contend.

    The Sonnets and Narrative Poems
  • A lover goes toward his beloved as enthusiastically as a schoolboy leaving his books, but when he leaves his girlfriend, he feels as miserable as the schoolboy on his way to school. (Act 2, scene 2)

  • I take thee at thy word:Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

    Romeo and Juliet
  • The summer's flower is to the summer sweetThough to itself it only live and die

    The Complete Sonnets and Poems
  • To me, fair friend, you never can be old,For as you were when first your eye I ey'd, Such seems your beauty still.

  • He that hath the steerage of my course,Direct my sail.

    Romeo and Juliet
  • Give thanks for what you are today and go on fighting for what you gone be tomorrow

  • Modest doubt is call'd the beacon of the wise.

    Troilus and Cressida
  • Tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.

  • Love is holy.

    All's Well That Ends Well
  • Of all knowledge, the wise and good seek mostly to know themselves.

  • 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

    Julius Caesar
  • There's a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads onto fortune, omitted, all their voyages end in shallows and miseries. Upon such tide are we now...

  • I bear a charmed life.

  • Cuando tu alma está preparada, las cosas también lo están.

    Henry V