William Shakespeare Quotes

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."

"A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued, and neither party loser."

"Absence from those we love is self from self - a deadly banishment."

"Alas, how love can trifle with itself!"

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

"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."

"Ambition should be made of sterner stuff."

"And summer's lease hath all too short a date."

"And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."

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

"April hath put a spirit of youth in everything."

"Art made tongue-tied by authority."

"As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport."

"As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him."

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

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

"Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar."

"Beauty is all very well at first sight; but whoever looks at it when it has been in the house three days?"

"Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery."

"Better a witty fool than a foolish wit."

"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late."

"Boldness be my friend."

"Brevity is the soul of wit."

"But when they seldom come, they wished for come."

"But will they come when you do call for them?"

"By that sin fell the angels."

"Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong."

"Confusion now hath made his masterpiece."

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once."

"Cudgel thy brains no more about it."

"Desire of having is the sin of covetousness."

"Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?"

"Everyone ought to bear patiently the results of his own conduct."

"Exceeds man's might: that dwells with the gods above."

"Expectation is the root of all heartache."

"False face must hide what the false heart doth know."

"Farewell, fair cruelty."

"Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones."

"For my part, it was Greek to me."

"Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered."

"Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice."

"Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have Immortal longings in me."

"Go to you bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know."

"God has given you one face, and you make yourself another."

"Having nothing, nothing can he lose."

"He does it with better grace, but I do it more natural."

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

"He lives in fame that died in virtue's cause."

"He makes a swan-like end, fading in music."

"He that is giddy thinks the world turns round."

"He that loves to be flattered is worthy o' the flatterer."

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

"Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself."

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."

"How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good dead in a naughty world."

"How long a time lies in one little word?"

"How now, wit! Whither wander you?"

"How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!"

"How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?"

"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!"

"I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw."

"I am not bound to please thee with my answer."

"I bear a charmed life."

"I dote on his very absence."

"I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart."

"I try to forget what happiness was, and when that don't work, I study the stars."

"I was adored once too."

"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me."

"I will praise any man that will praise me."

"If it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul."

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

"If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottage princes' palaces."

"If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honor."

"If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me."

"If you have tears, prepare to shed them now."

"If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?"

"If you want to win anything - a race, your self, your life - you have to go a little berserk."

"Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven."

"In a false quarrel there is no true valor."

"In time we hate that which we often fear."

"Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?"

"Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts."

"It is a custom. More honored in the breach than the observance."

"It is a wise father that knows his own child."

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

"It provokes the desire but it take away the performance."

"It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood."

"Lawless are they that make their wills their law."

"Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent."

"Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course."

"Let no such man be trusted."

"Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life."

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

"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."

"Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end."

"Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying!"

"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."

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

"Love is a spirit of all compact of fire."

"Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds."

"Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better."

"Maids want nothing but husbands, and when they have them, they want everything."

"Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage."

"Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives."

"Men shut their doors against a setting sun."

"Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes."

"Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise."

"Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue."

"My age is as a lusty winter, frosty but kindly."

"My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy."

"My library was dukedom large enough."

"My pride fell with my fortunes."

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be."

"No legacy is so rich as honesty."

"Nothing can come of nothing."

"Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable."

"Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair."

"O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!"

"O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil."

"O, had I but followed the arts!"

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

"O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad!"

"O! What a noble mind is here o'erthrown."

"O' What may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!"

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."

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

"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."

"Parting is such sweet sorrow."

"Poor and content is rich, and rich enough."

"Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!"

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

"So foul and fair a day I have not seen."

"So shines a good deed in a weary world."

"So wise so young, they say, do never live long."

"Such seems your beauty still."

"Suit the action to the word, the word to the action."

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

"Sweet are the uses of adversity."

"Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge."

"Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water-bath is to the body."

"Talking isn't doing It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds."

"Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart."

"The attempt and not the deed confounds us."

"The cat will mew, and dog will have his day."

"The course of true love never did run smooth."

"The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose."

"The empty vessel makes the loudest sound."

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

"The fashion wears out more apparel than the man."

"The golden age is before us, not behind us."

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

"The love of heaven makes one heavenly."

"The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact."

"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 most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is and steal out of your company."

"The object of art is to give life a shape."

"The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief."

"The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch, Which hurts and is desired."

"The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns."

"The valiant never taste of death but once."

"The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream."

"The wheel is come full circle."

"The will of man is by his reason swayed."

"There is no darkness but ignorance."

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

"There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face."

"They do not love that do not show their love."

"They say miracles are past."

"Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear."

"Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing."

"This above all; to thine own self be true."

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't."

"Thus conscience does make cowards of us all."

"Time and the hour run through the roughest day."

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

"It is one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall."

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

"To fear the worst oft cures the worse."

"To their right praise and true perfection!"

"To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

"Tones that sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes."

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

"Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping?"

"We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things require a seed to start from... Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing, but all things return dissolved into their elements."

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

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

"What is past is prologue."

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

"When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry."

"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions."

"When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools."

"Where every something, being blent together turns to a wild of nothing."

"Why so large a cost, having so short a lease, does thou upon your fading mansion spend?"

"Why this is very midsummer madness."

"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."

"Women speak two languages - one of which is verbal."

"Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

"Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart."

"Your 'if' is the only peace-maker; much virtue in 'if'."