William Shakespeare Quotes 698 Quotes Revealing Timeless Wisdom on Love, Trust, and Human Nature

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

Source: Romeo and Juliet, Act II

William Shakespeare: Trending quotes

“Look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under it.”

Source: Hamlet, Act II, scene ii.

“We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good; so find we profit
By losing of our prayers.”

Source: Macbeth

William Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra

Source: Antony and Cleopatra

William Shakespeare Quotes

“Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak.”

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Source: As You Like It

“My soul is in the sky.”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

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

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Touchstone, Act V, scene i
Source: As You Like It (1599–1600)

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Helena, Act I, scene i.
Variant: Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind".
Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)

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

“One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.”

“To be or not to be, that is the question.”

Source: Hamlet

“What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind.”

Source: Hamlet, Act III, scene i.

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.”

William Shakespeare Twelfth Night

Malvolio, Act II, scene v.
Variant: Some are born great, others achieve greatness.
Source: Twelfth Night (1601)

“Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find.”

William Shakespeare book The Passionate Pilgrim

Source: The Passionate Pilgrim

“In time we hate that which we often fear.”

William Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra

Source: Antony and Cleopatra

“Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“What's done cannot be undone.”

“When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!”

Variant: What's done, is done
Source: Macbeth

“Peace? I hate the word as I hate hell and all Montagues.”

Source: Hamlet

“The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, which still we thank as love.”

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“Love me or hate me, both are in my favour. If you love me, I'll always be in your heart… If you hate me, I'll always be in your mind.”

Source: Macbeth

“Have more than you show,
Speak less than you know.”

“He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.”

“Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all!
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall:
Some run from brakes of ice, and answer none:
And some condemned for a fault alone.”

Source: Hamlet

William Shakespeare Measure for Measure

Source: Measure for Measure

“I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed!”

“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.”

“Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.”

“I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.”

Source: Macbeth

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”

Source: Hamlet

William Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice

Source: The Merchant of Venice

“Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot in sea, and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Balthazar, Act II, scene iii.
Source: Much Ado About Nothing (1598)

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

“Listen to many, speak to a few.”

Source: Hamlet

“Presume not that I am the thing I was.”

Source: Hamlet

William Shakespeare Henry IV, Part 2

Source: Henry IV, Part 2

“Conscience doth make cowards of us all.”

“We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.”

Source: Hamlet

William Shakespeare The Tempest

Prospero, Act IV, scene i.
Source: The Tempest (1611)

“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”

“What's past is prologue.”

Source: Hamlet

William Shakespeare The Tempest

Source: The Tempest

“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”

“This above all: to thine own self be true.”

Variant: Go wisely and slowly. Those who rush stumble and fall.
Source: Romeo and Juliet

“Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince;
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

Source: Hamlet

“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.”

Source: Hamlet

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“O teach me how I should forget to think (1.1.224)”

“Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night;
Give me my Romeo; and, when I shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night…”

Source: Romeo and Juliet

Variant: When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
Source: Romeo and Juliet

“I defy you, stars.”

“in black ink my love may still shine bright.”

Source: Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare book Shakespeare's Sonnets

Source: Shakespeare's Sonnets

“Under loves heavy burden do I sink.
--Romeo”