William Shakespeare Quotes
Writer
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.
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. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
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.
The course of true love never did run smooth.
Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear.
To do a great right do a little wrong.
To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
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.
Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.
Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.
The love of heaven makes one heavenly.
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.
No legacy is so rich as honesty.
Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.
Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.
Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.
Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.
How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.
Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.
This above all; to thine own self be true.
The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.
Nothing can come of nothing.
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.
Though she be but little, she is fierce.
How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.
Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.
Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.
I am not bound to please thee with my answer.
The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.
As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.
Love is too young to know what conscience is.
My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy.
If music be the food of love, play on.
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.
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.
Farewell, fair cruelty.
What's done can't be undone.
Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing.
Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.
If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me.
What is past is prologue.
O' What may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!
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.
There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.
The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.
We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.
Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?
They do not love that do not show their love.
Speak low, if you speak love.
Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.
Brevity is the soul of wit.
A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.
Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!
Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
It is the stars, The stars above us, govern our conditions.
I was adored once too.
Lawless are they that make their wills their law.
I bear a charmed life.
Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.
To be, or not to be, that is the question.
We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone.
Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.
O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.
Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue.
The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch, which hurts and is desired.
Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end.
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.
Talking isn't doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.
A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued, and neither party loser.
Give thy thoughts no tongue.
Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.
Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have Immortal longings in me.