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

Discover the timeless wisdom of William Shakespeare through his most famous quotes. From the complexities of love to the depths of human nature, these insightful words will captivate and inspire. Explore Shakespeare's profound observations on trust, beauty, love, and the inevitability of death.

William Shakespeare is widely considered to be the greatest writer in the English language and one of the most influential playwrights of all time. Born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, he married Anne Hathaway at a young age and went on to have three children. In London, he established a successful career as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company. Shakespeare's works include 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three narrative poems, and various other verses. His plays have been translated into numerous languages and continue to be studied and performed worldwide.

Shakespeare's early works were comedies and histories, showcasing his mastery in these genres. Later in his career, he focused more on tragedies such as Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, which are regarded as some of the finest works in English literature. In his later years, he wrote tragicomedies and collaborated with other playwrights. While little is known about his personal life, there has been ongoing speculation about his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether some of his works were actually written by others. His legacy lives on through the enduring popularity of his plays and the continued exploration of his profound impact on literature.

✵ 1564 – 23. April 1616
William Shakespeare photo
William Shakespeare: 699 quotes1104 likes

William Shakespeare Quotes

“A little water clears us of this deed.”

William Shakespeare Macbeth

Source: Macbeth

“We will all laugh at gilded butterflies.”

William Shakespeare

“Women speak two languages - one of which is verbal.”

William Shakespeare

“Conceal me what I am, and be my aid for such disguise as haply shall become the form of my intent.”

William Shakespeare Twelfth Night

Source: Twelfth Night

“Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him,
And all their ministers attend on him.”

William Shakespeare Richard III

Source: Richard III

“He is as full of valor as of kindness. Princely in both.”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V

“I see a woman may be made a fool,
If she had not a spirit to resist.”

William Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew

Source: The Taming of the Shrew

“And make death proud to take us.”

William Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra

Source: Antony and Cleopatra

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

William Shakespeare

“Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will depart unkissed.”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“I will make thee think thy swan a crow.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“Hamlet: Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
Ophelia: No, my lord.
Hamlet: DId you think I meant country matters?
Ophelia: I think nothing, my lord.
Hamlet: That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
Ophelia: What is, my lord?
Hamlet: Nothing.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“Screw your courage to the sticking-place”

William Shakespeare Macbeth

Source: Macbeth

“Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy:
This wide and universal theatre
Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
Wherein we play in.”

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Source: As You Like It

“These sudden joys have sudden endings. They burn up in victory like fire and gunpowder.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“They say best men are molded out of faults,
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad”

William Shakespeare

“Keep time! How sour sweet music is when time is broke and no proportion kept! So is it in the music of men's lives. I wasted time and now doth time waste me.”

William Shakespeare Richard II

Source: Richard II

“She gave me for my pains a world of sighs.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank
Here we will sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears; soft stillness, and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony”

William Shakespeare

“He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace and fear:
And you all know, security
Is mortals' chiefest enemy.”

William Shakespeare Macbeth

Source: Macbeth

“For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel:
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!
This was the most unkindest cut of all”

William Shakespeare

“Still it cried ‘Sleep no more!’ to all the house: ‘Glamis hath murder’d sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more,—Macbeth shall sleep no more!”

William Shakespeare Macbeth

Source: Macbeth

“He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such as she;
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fullness of perfection lies in him.”

William Shakespeare King John

Source: King John

“Nothing can come of nothing.”

William Shakespeare King Lear

Lear, Act I, scene i.
Variant: Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
Source: King Lear (1605–6)

“I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve him truly that will put me in trust: to love him that is honest; to converse with him that is wise, and says little; to fear judgment; to fight when I cannot choose; and to eat no fish.”

William Shakespeare King Lear

Source: King Lear

“What win I if I gain the thing I seek?
A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy.
Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week?
Or sells eternity to get a toy?”

William Shakespeare book The Rape of Lucrece

Source: The Rape of Lucrece

“He kills her in her own humor.”

William Shakespeare

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

William Shakespeare King Lear

Source: King Lear

“Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand,
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover's fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

William Shakespeare

“We came into the world like brother and brother,
And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.”

William Shakespeare The Comedy of Errors

Source: The Comedy of Errors

“We will meet; and there we may rehearse most
obscenely and courageously.

Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream. Spoken by Bottom, Act I Sc. 2”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

“Can I go forward when my heart is here?”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“O, then, what graces in my love do dwell, That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell!”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

“I drink to the general joy o’ the whole table." Macbeth”

William Shakespeare Macbeth

Source: Macbeth

“Glendower: I can call the spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come, when you do call for them?”

William Shakespeare

Source: King Henry IV, Part 1

“Yes, faith; it is my cousin's duty to make curtsy and say 'Father, as it please you.' But yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another curtsy and say 'Father, as it please me.”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“Parting is such sweet sorrow”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet