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Quotes by William Shakespeare


Be great in act, as you have been in thought.
– William Shakespeare
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man….
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
– William Shakespeare
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 villainy
With odd old ends stolen forth of holy writ,
And seem I a saint, when most I play the Devil.
– William Shakespeare
The fashion wears out more apparel than the man.
– William Shakespeare
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
– William Shakespeare
...the honour of a maid is her name; and
no legacy is so rich as honesty.
– William Shakespeare
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
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear...
– William Shakespeare
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
As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport.
– William Shakespeare
O, thou hast 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. I must give over this life, and I will give it over; by the Lord, an I do not, I am a villain: I'll be damn'd for never a king's son in Christendom.
– William Shakespeare
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety: other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies.
– William Shakespeare
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love...
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet...
– William Shakespeare
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 ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
– William Shakespeare
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
– William Shakespeare
Good-morrow to thee; welcome:
Thou look'st like him that knows a warlike charge:
To business that we love we rise betime,
And go to't with delight.
– William Shakespeare
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
Action is eloquence.
– William Shakespeare
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
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
– William Shakespeare
Blow, blow, thou winter wind
Thou art not so unkind,
As man's ingratitude.
– William Shakespeare
Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood.
– William Shakespeare
Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war!
– William Shakespeare
For they are yet ear-kissing arguments.
– William Shakespeare
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
Glory is like a circle in the water,
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,
Till by broad spreading it disperses to naught.
– William Shakespeare
God bless thee; and put meekness in thy mind, love, charity, obedience, and true duty!
– William Shakespeare
He is winding the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.
– William Shakespeare
He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself.
– William Shakespeare
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
I am not bound to please thee with my answers.
– William Shakespeare
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
I dote on his very absence.
– William Shakespeare
I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience.
– William Shakespeare
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
I pray thee cease thy counsel,
Which falls into mine ears as profitless
as water in a sieve.
– William Shakespeare
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
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
– William Shakespeare
I wish you well and so I take my leave,
I Pray you know me when we meet again.
– William Shakespeare
Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.
– William Shakespeare
In a false quarrel there is no true valour.
– William Shakespeare
In time we hate that which we often fear.
– William Shakespeare
It is not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after.
– William Shakespeare
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
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end.
– William Shakespeare
Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none.
– William Shakespeare
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.
– William Shakespeare
Mine honour is my life; both grow in one; take honour from me and my life is done.
– William Shakespeare
Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.
– William Shakespeare
Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners.
– William Shakespeare
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie.
– William Shakespeare
Pity is the virture of the law, and none but tyrants use it cruelly.
– William Shakespeare
Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear.
– William Shakespeare
So may he rest, his faults lie gently on him!
– William Shakespeare
Strong reasons make strong actions.
– William Shakespeare
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.
– William Shakespeare
Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like a toad, though ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in its head.
– William Shakespeare
The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords, in such a just an charitable war.
– William Shakespeare
The sands are number'd that make up my life.
– William Shakespeare
The soul of this man is in his clothes.
– William Shakespeare
The trust I have is in mine innocence,
and therefore am I bold and resolute.
– William Shakespeare
Their understanding
Begins to swell and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shores
That now lie foul and muddy.
– William Shakespeare
Thou art all the comfort,
The Gods will diet me with.
– William Shakespeare
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge of thine own cause.
– William Shakespeare
Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.
– William Shakespeare
Thy words, I grant are bigger, for I wear not, my dagger in my mouth.
– William Shakespeare
Virtue and genuine graces in themselves speak what no words can utter.
– William Shakespeare
We are advertis'd by our loving friends.
– William Shakespeare
We do not keep the outward form of order, where there is deep disorder in the mind.
– William Shakespeare
When griping grief the heart doth wound,
and doleful dumps the mind opresses,
then music, with her silver sound,
with speedy help doth lend redress.
– William Shakespeare
While thou livest keep a good tongue in thy head.
– William Shakespeare
You cram these words into mine ears against the stomach of my sense.
– William Shakespeare
Your face is a book, where men may read strange matters.
– William Shakespeare
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
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
– William Shakespeare
My salad days,
When I was green in judgment.
– William Shakespeare
Small to greater matters must give way.
– William Shakespeare
Since Cleopatra died,
I have liv'd in such dishonour that the gods
Detest my baseness.
– William Shakespeare
I have
Immortal longings in me.
– William Shakespeare
Hereafter, in a better world than this,
I shall desire more love and knowledge of you.
– William Shakespeare
The little foolery that wise men have makes a great show.
– William Shakespeare
I met a fool i' the forest,
A motley fool.
– William Shakespeare
True is it that we have seen better days.
– William Shakespeare
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
– William Shakespeare
The game is up.
– William Shakespeare
I have not slept one wink.
– William Shakespeare
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
A little more than kin, and less than kind.
– William Shakespeare
Frailty, thy name is woman!
– William Shakespeare
He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.
– William Shakespeare
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
But to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honoured in the breach than the observance.
– William Shakespeare
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
– William Shakespeare
Every man has business and desire,
Such as it is.
– William Shakespeare
Leave her to heaven
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her.
– William Shakespeare
Brevity is the soul of wit.
– William Shakespeare
The devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape.
– William Shakespeare
The play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
– William Shakespeare
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
– William Shakespeare
Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.
– William Shakespeare