William Shakespeare Quotes page 4 698 Quotes Revealing Timeless Wisdom on Love, Trust, and Human Nature

“I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.”

Source: Hamlet

“The robb'd that smiles, steals something from the thief; He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.”

Source: Hamlet

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.”

William Shakespeare Henry VIII

Source: Henry VIII

“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”

William Shakespeare All's Well That Ends Well

Source: All's Well That Ends Well

“The prince of darkness is a gentleman!”

William Shakespeare King Lear

Source: King Lear

“Love moderately. Long love doth so.
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

*Love each other in moderation. That is the key to long-lasting love. Too fast is as bad as too slow.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”

William Shakespeare The Merry Wives of Windsor

Source: The Merry Wives of Windsor

“The rest, is silence.”

“Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.”

Source: Hamlet

“If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.”

Source: Macbeth, Act I, scene iii.

“Awake, dear heart, awake. Thou hast slept well. Awake.”

William Shakespeare The Tempest

Source: The Tempest

“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,
Yet Grace must still look so.”

“True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings.”

Source: Macbeth

“And to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in
a merry hour.
BEATRICE
No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there
was a star danced, and under that was I born.”

“In thy foul throat thou liest.”

William Shakespeare Richard III

Source: Richard III

“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.”

William Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra

Source: Antony and Cleopatra

“Be bloody bold and resolute.”

“For to be wise and love exceeds man's might.”

Source: Macbeth

William Shakespeare Troilus and Cressida

Source: Troilus and Cressida

“I have Immortal longings in me.”

William Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra

Variant: Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have Immortal longings in me
Source: Antony and Cleopatra

“There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
Would men observingly distill it out.”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V

“O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name, or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I'll no longer be a Capulet.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“I have supped full with horrors.”

“Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful”

Source: Macbeth

“The moon shines bright. In such a night as this. When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees and they did make no noise, in such a night…”

William Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice

Source: The Merchant of Venice

“The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V, No Fear, Act 4 Scene 4

“Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!”

“Dispute not with her: she is lunatic.”

Macbeth

William Shakespeare Richard III

Source: Richard III

“The breaking of so great a thing should make
A greater crack: the round world
Should have shook lions into civil streets,
And citizens to their dens.”

William Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra

Source: Antony and Cleopatra

“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.”

“Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.”

Variant: The grief that does not speak whispers the o'erfraught heart and bids it break.
Source: Macbeth

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Hero, Act III, scene i.
Source: Much Ado About Nothing (1598)

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.”

Source: Hamlet

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

“Men in rage strike those that wish them best.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“Exit, pursued by a bear.”

William Shakespeare The Winter's Tale

Source: The Winter's Tale

“He that is thy friend indeed,
He will help thee in thy need:
If thou sorrow, he will weep;
If thou wake, he cannot sleep:
Thus of every grief in heart
He with thee doth bear a part.
These are certain signs to know
Faithful friend from flattering foe.”

William Shakespeare book The Passionate Pilgrim

Source: The Passionate Pilgrim

“Oh, I am fortune's fool!”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“[Thine] face is not worth sunburning.”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V

“So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.”

“I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue.”

Source: Hamlet

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“Beware the ides of March.”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Soothsayer, Act I, scene ii.
Source: Julius Caesar (1599)

“Love is merely a madness; and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do; and the reason why they are not so punish'd and cured is that the lunacy is so
ordinary that the whippers are in love too.”

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Source: As You Like It

“And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With odd old ends stol'n out of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.”

William Shakespeare Richard III

Source: Richard III

“[Thou] mad mustachio purple-hued maltworms!”