William Shakespeare Quotes page 5 698 Quotes Revealing Timeless Wisdom on Love, Trust, and Human Nature

“Romeo: I dreamt a dream tonight.
Mercutio: And so did I.
Romeo: Well, what was yours?
Mercutio: That dreamers often lie.
Romeo: In bed asleep while they do dream things true.”

Source: Macbeth

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“All things are ready, if our mind be so.”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V

“love is blind
and lovers cannot see
the pretty follies
that themselves commit”

William Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice

Source: The Merchant of Venice

“O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd! She was a vixen when she went to school; And though she be but little, she is fierce.”

“For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lillies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

William Shakespeare book Shakespeare's Sonnets

Source: The Sonnets

“Things without all remedy should be without regard: what's done is done.”

“Many a true word hath been spoken in jest.”

Source: Macbeth

William Shakespeare King Lear

Source: King Lear

“Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.”

“No, no, I am but shadow of myself:
You are deceived, my substance is not here;”

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

William Shakespeare Henry VI, Part 1

Source: Henry VI, Part 1

“Now I will believe that there are unicorns…”

William Shakespeare The Tempest

Source: The Tempest

“There's small choice in rotten apples.”

William Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew

Source: The Taming of the Shrew

“Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
That would not let me sleep.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“All causes shall give way: I am in blood
Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

“The Devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape.”

Source: Macbeth

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.”

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Source: As You Like It

“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”

William Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice

Source: The Merchant of Venice

“The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“O, full of scorpions is my mind!”

“For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.”

Source: Macbeth

William Shakespeare book Shakespeare's Sonnets

Source: Shakespeare's Sonnets

“Love's stories written in love's richest books.
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes.”

“Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving.”

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

William Shakespeare Othello

Iago, Act II, scene iii.
Source: Othello (1603–4)

“And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. I would not change it.”

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Source: As You Like It

“Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“The weight of this sad time we must obey,
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.”

William Shakespeare King Lear

Source: King Lear

“I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.”

“Thou art a very ragged Wart.”

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

William Shakespeare Henry IV, Part 2

Source: Henry IV, Part 2

“So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet an union in partition,
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem.”

“Thus I die. Thus, thus, thus.
Now I am dead,
Now I am fled,
My soul is in the sky.
Tongue, lose thy light.
Moon take thy flight.
Now die, die, die, die.”

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

“Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.”

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

William Shakespeare King Lear

Source: King Lear

“When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V

“Out, out brief candle, life is but a walking shadow… a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

“turn him into stars and form a constellation in his image. His face will make the heavens so beautiful that the world will fall in love with the night and forget about the garish sun.”

Variant: Life... is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Source: Macbeth

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“His life was gentle; and the elements
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“Love sought is good, but giv'n unsought is better.”

William Shakespeare Twelfth Night

Source: Twelfth Night

“Thought is free.”

William Shakespeare The Tempest

Source: The Tempest

“Out, damned spot! out, I say!”

“You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, except my life.”

Source: Macbeth

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“Sweet are the uses of adversity
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Source: As You Like It

“My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white.”

“This thing of darkness I
Acknowledge mine.”

Variant: My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white.
Source: Macbeth

William Shakespeare The Tempest

Source: The Tempest

“The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?”

William Shakespeare Measure for Measure

Source: Measure for Measure

“But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?

Beatrice: Is it possible disdain should die while she hath
such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick?”

“Banish'd from [those we love] Is self from self: a deadly banishment!”

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

William Shakespeare The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Source: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

“I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“Silence is the perfectest herault of joy. I were but little happy if I could say how much.”

“I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was.”

Source: Much Ado About Nothing