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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

“So fair and foul a day I have not seen.”

William Shakespeare Macbeth

Source: Macbeth

“And sleep, that sometime shuts up sorrow's eye, Steal me awhile from mine own company.”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

“O! she doth teach the torches to burn bright
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.

- Romeo”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“I am very proud, revengeful,
ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have
thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape,
or time to act them in.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath
To say to me that thou art out of breath?”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd,
And I lov'd her that she did pity them”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“One fire burns out another's burning,
One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
Iago”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?
Polonius: By the mass, and ‘tis like a camel, indeed.
Hamlet: Methinks it is like a weasel.
Polonius: It is backed like a weasel.
Hamlet: Or like a whale?
Polonius: Very like a whale.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.”

William Shakespeare King Lear

Variant: We know what we are, but not what we may be.
Source: King Lear

“And worse I may be yet: the worst is not
So long as we can say 'This is the worst.”

William Shakespeare King Lear

Source: King Lear

“Love me!… Why?”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“Out of her favour, where I am in love.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“I say there is no darkness but ignorance.”

William Shakespeare Twelfth Night

Source: Twelfth Night

“I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other.”

William Shakespeare Macbeth

Source: Macbeth

“Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens to the which our wills are gardeners.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”

William Shakespeare The Tempest

Trinculo, Act II, scene ii.
Source: The Tempest (1611)

“Men should be what they seem.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York.”

William Shakespeare Richard III

Richard, Act I, scene i.
Variant: Now is the winter of our discontent.
Source: Richard III (1592–3)

“Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting.”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: King Henry V

“He jests at scars that never felt a wound.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“Summer's lease hath all too short a date.”

William Shakespeare book Shakespeare's Sonnets

Source: Sonnets (1609), XVIII
Source: Shakespeare's Sonnets
Context: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date

“If I be waspish, best beware my sting.”

William Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew

Source: The Taming of the Shrew

“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.”

William Shakespeare

Source: Love Poems and Sonnets

“Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Variant: O my love, my wife!
Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.
Source: Romeo and Juliet

“Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“Get thee to a nunnery.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“And therefore, — since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days, —
I am determined to prove a villain,
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.”

William Shakespeare Richard III

Source: Richard III

“I do feel it gone,
But know not how it went”

William Shakespeare The Winter's Tale

Source: The Winter's Tale

“Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!”

William Shakespeare King Lear

Lear, Act I, scene iv.
Source: King Lear (1605–6)

“Death, a necessary end, will come when it will come”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“O time, thou must untangle this, not I.
It is too hard a knot for me t'untie.”

William Shakespeare Twelfth Night

Source: Twelfth Night

“There are no tricks in plain and simple faith.”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain and nourish all the world.”

William Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost

Source: Love's Labour's Lost

“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

William Shakespeare book Shakespeare's Sonnets

Source: Sonnets (1609), XVIII
Source: Shakespeare's Sonnets

“They do not love, that do not show their love.”

William Shakespeare The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Variant: They do not love that do not show their love.
Source: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

“I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy
eyes—and moreover, I will go with thee to thy uncle’s.”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“When beggars die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“Time travels at different speeds for different people. I can tell you who time strolls for, who it trots for, who it gallops for, and who it stops cold for.”

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Source: As You Like It