William Shakespeare Quotes

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

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“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;”

“Now I will believe that there are unicorns…”

“There's small choice in rotten apples.”

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

“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.”

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

“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!”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“Thou art a very ragged Wart.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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!”

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

“Thought is free.”

“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.”

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

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

“This thing of darkness I
Acknowledge mine.”

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

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

“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!”

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

“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.”

“Go to your bosom; Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.”

“Demetrius: Villain, what hast thou done?
Aaron: That which thou canst not undo.
Chiron: Thou hast undone our mother.
Aaron: Villain, I have done thy mother.”

“The Play's the Thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.”