William Shakespeare’s quotes are a rich blend of timeless wisdom, exploring themes of love, ambition, identity, and human nature.
His words reflect deep insight into the complexities of life, often capturing the essence of emotions and the human experience. From humorous lines to profound reflections,
Shakespeare’s quotes transcend centuries, offering guidance, provoking thought, and resonating with readers worldwide. They remain an invaluable source of inspiration and introspection.
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
“To be, or not to be, that is the question.”
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”
“This above all: to thine own self be true.”
“Brevity is the soul of wit.”
“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
“What’s past is prologue.”
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
“If music be the food of love, play on.”
“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”
“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we might oft win, by fearing to attempt.”
“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!”
“Though she be but little, she is fierce.”
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.”
“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”
“The better part of valour is discretion.”
“Discretion is the better part of valour.” (A common paraphrase)
“All that glisters is not gold.”
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
“To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on.”
“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”
“O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-ey’d monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on.”
“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow.”
“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
“Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.”
“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”
“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?”
“Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.”
“Golden lads and girls all must, as chimney-sweepers, come to dust.”
“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”
“To fear the worst oft cures the worse.”
“Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day.”
“How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?”
“My kingdom for a horse!”
“The world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.”
“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”
“Conscience doth make cowards of us all.”
“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”
“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”
“The apparel oft proclaims the man.”
“Blow, blow, thou winter wind, thou art not so unkind as man’s ingratitude.”
“Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.”
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
“Nothing will come of nothing.”
“Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, which we ascribe to heaven.”
“Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.”
“Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.”
“Ignorance is the curse of God, knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.”
“Talking isn’t doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.”
“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”
“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty!”
“If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly.”
“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”
“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
“Come what sorrow can, it cannot countervail the exchange of joy that one short minute gives me in thy sight.”
“Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners.”
“The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch, which hurts and is desired.”
“Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.”
“Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.”
“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”
“Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.”
“For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
“What’s done cannot be undone.”
“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”
“A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued, and neither party loser.”
“He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man.”
“When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.”
“Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.”
“Why, then, to-morrow night, or Tuesday morn; or Tuesday no doubt, or Wednesday morning next: or any time before you dare to say ‘It is not fit’.”
“Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?”
“He jests at scars that never felt a wound.”
“My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break.”
“The purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation.”
“Why, then, be sad; but let my sadness rather be expressed by tears than by a tongue.”
“Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.”
“When words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain.”
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
“Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.”
“The time of life is short; to spend that shortness basely were too long.”
“The king’s name is a tower of strength.”
“Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.”
“Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.”
“I am a man more sinned against than sinning.”
“Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York.”
“Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting.”
“There’s daggers in men’s smiles.”
“Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.”
“God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.”
“Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”
“Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, when our deep plots do pall.”
“The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks.”
“Thy life’s a miracle.”
“In time we hate that which we often fear.”
“I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; a stage where every man must play a part, and mine a sad one.”
“The poor wren, the most diminutive of birds, will fight, her young ones in her nest, against the owl.”
“Men should be what they seem.”
“The valiant never taste of death but once.”
“There is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.”
“The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact.”
“Go wisely and slowly. Those who rush stumble and fall.”
“So dear I love him, that with him all deaths are light.”
“I will be the pattern of all patience.”
“A jest’s prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it, never in the tongue of him that makes it.”
“O, that a man might know the end of this day’s business ere it come!”
“There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned.”
“We have seen better days.”
“The great globe itself, yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve.”
“For in my youth I never did apply hot and rebellious liquors in my blood.”
“Boldness be my friend.”
“The worst is not so long as we can say ‘This is the worst.’”
“A custom more honour’d in the breach than the observance.”
“To kill a king and banish him alive.”
“Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.”
“Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.”
“Thus far into the bowels of the land have we marched on without impediment.”
“If we are nature’s, these are ours.”
“Look, in this place ran Cassius’ dagger through.”
“Why, then, I will not come. Go tell the King I am not well.”
Shakespeare’s timeless wisdom continues to resonate through his words, offering insights into love, life, and human nature. Quotes like “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none” encourage us to live with integrity and authenticity, embracing the complexities of relationships and moral choices in a nuanced world.
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