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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

“Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
And recks not his own read.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter
and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.(IAGO, ActI, SceneI)”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“Be not afraid of greatness.”

William Shakespeare Twelfth Night

Source: Twelfth Night

“Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety."
Antony and Cleopatra (II. ii) ~William Shakespeare”

William Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra

Source: Antony and Cleopatra

“This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“Beatrice: He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me; and he that is less than a man, I am not for him.”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Variant: He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man. He that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him.
Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,
To share with me in glory any more:
Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere;”

William Shakespeare

Source: King Henry IV, Part 1

“This is the very ecstasy of love, whose violent property ordoes itself and leads the will to desperate undertakings.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“But Kate, dost thou understand thus much English? Canst thou love me?"
Catherine: "I cannot tell."
Henry: "Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask them.”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V

“Alas, the frailty is to blame, not we
For such as we are made of, such we be”

William Shakespeare

Source: Twelfth Night Paperback

“Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“All of Creation’s a farce.
Man was born as a joke.
In his head his reason is buffeted
Like wind-blown smoke.
Life is a game.
Everyone ridicules everyone else.
But he who has the last laugh
Laughs longest.”

William Shakespeare

“Nor shall this peace sleep with her; but as when
The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix,
Her ashes new-create another heir
As great in admiration as herself.”

William Shakespeare Henry VIII

Source: Henry VIII

“I have no way and therefore want no eyes
I stumbled when I saw. Full oft 'tis seen
our means secure us, and our mere defects
prove our commodities.”

William Shakespeare King Lear

Source: King Lear

“I understand a fury in your words
But not your words.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“His jest shall savour but a shallow wit, when thousands more weep than did laugh it.”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V

“Hang there like a fruit, my soul, Till the tree die!

-Posthumus Leonatus
Act V, Scene V”

William Shakespeare Cymbeline

Source: Cymbeline

“And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence”

William Shakespeare

“But she makes hungry
Where she most satisfies…”

William Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra

Source: Antony and Cleopatra

“More fools know Jack Fool than Jack Fool knows.”

William Shakespeare King Lear

Source: King Lear

“Thou shalt be free
As mountain winds: but then exactly do
All points of my command.”

William Shakespeare The Tempest

Source: The Tempest

“I have drunk and seen the spider.”

William Shakespeare The Winter's Tale

Source: The Winter's Tale

“What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no.”

William Shakespeare

Source: King Henry IV, Part 1

“Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? - Lady Macbeth”

William Shakespeare Macbeth

Source: Macbeth

“Let life be short, else shame will be too long.”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V

“Love is not love
Which alters when alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
Oh, no, it is an ever-fixèd mark,
that looks on tempests and is never shaken.”

William Shakespeare

Source: The Complete Sonnets and Poems

“In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility; but when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard-favor'd rage.”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V

“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues.”

William Shakespeare All's Well That Ends Well

Source: All's Well That Ends Well

“So quick bright things come to confusion.”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

“How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in it!”

William Shakespeare The Tempest

Variant: O, brave new world
that has such people in't!
Source: The Tempest

“For who so firm that cannot be seduced?”

William Shakespeare

“For what says Quinapalus? Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.”

William Shakespeare Twelfth Night

Variant: Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.
Source: Twelfth Night

“LEONATO
Neighbours, you are tedious.

DOGBERRY
It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the poor duke's officers; but truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a king, I could find it in
my heart to bestow it all of your worship.”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“for Mercutio's soul
Is but a little way above our heads,
Staying for thine to keep him company:
Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“How is it that the clouds still hang on you?”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest, and despair most fits.”

William Shakespeare

“Alas, poor country, almost afraid to know itself! It cannot be called our mother, but our grave.”

William Shakespeare Macbeth

Source: Macbeth