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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

“JAQUES: Rosalind is your love's name?

ORLANDO: Yes, just.

JAQUES: I do not like her name.

ORLANDO: There was no thought of pleasing you when she was christened.”

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Source: As You Like It

“Let me have men about me that are fat… Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,
And vice sometime by action dignified.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“In jest, there is truth.”

William Shakespeare King Lear

Source: King Lear

“Ay me! for aught that ever I could read,
could ever hear by tale or history,
the course of true love never did run smooth.”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine ownself be true.
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Polonius, Act I, scene iii.
Source: Hamlet (1600–1)

“Up and down, up and down
I will lead them up and down
I am feared in field in town
Goblin, lead them up and down”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

“Ha. "Against my will I am sent to bid you come into dinner." There's a double meaning in that.
-Benedick (Much Ado)”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“I am your wife if you will marry me.
If not, I'll die your maid. To be your fellow
You may deny me, but I'll be your servant Whether you will or no.”

William Shakespeare The Tempest

Source: The Tempest

“Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day.”

William Shakespeare Richard II

Source: Richard II

“And nothing is, but what is not.”

William Shakespeare Macbeth

Source: Macbeth

“As I love the name of honour more than I fear death.”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. But I know none, and therefore am no beast.”

William Shakespeare Richard III

Source: Richard III

“They lie deadly that tell you have good faces.”

William Shakespeare Coriolanus

Source: Coriolanus

“When you depart from me sorrow abides and happiness takes his leave.”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“No matter where; of comfort no man speak:
Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth”

William Shakespeare Richard II

Variant: Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth,
Let's choose executors and talk of wills
Source: Richard II

“I am afeard there are few die well that die in battle, for how can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their argument?”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V

“The miserable have no other medicine
But only hope.”

William Shakespeare

“There's little of the melancholy element in her, my lord: she is never sad but when she sleeps; and not ever sad then; for I have heard my daughter say, she hath often dreamt of unhappiness, and waked herself with laughing.”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“Yet but three come one more.
Two of both kinds make up four.
Ere she comes curst and sad.
Cupid is a knavish lad.
Thus to make poor females mad.”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

“The world must be peopled!”

William Shakespeare

“It is excellent / To have a giant's strenght / But it is tyrannous / To use it like a giant

(Isabella)”

William Shakespeare Measure for Measure

Source: Measure for Measure

“You have witchcraft in your lips, there is more eloquence in a sugar touch of them than in the tongues of the French council; and they should
sooner persuade Harry of England than a general petition of monarchs.”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V

“true apothecary thy drugs art quick”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me From mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom.”

William Shakespeare

“I do desire we may be better strangers.”

William Shakespeare

“It’s easy for someone to joke about scars if they’ve never been cut.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“All that glisters is not gold.”

William Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice

Prince of Morocco, reading Portia's note, Act II, scene vii; this is the source of the popular paraphrase "All that glitters is not gold."
Source: The Merchant of Venice (1596–7)

“Your cause of sorrow must not be measured by his worth, for then it hath no end.”

William Shakespeare

Source: Macbeth: Playgoer's Edition

“I’ll look to like, if looking liking move; But no more deep will I endart mine eye than your consent gives strength to make it fly.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“Men are April when they woo, December when they wed…”

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Source: As You Like It

“Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot. Take thou what course thou wilt.”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special
providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,
'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be
now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the
readiness is all.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“But it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels, which, by often rumination, wraps me in the most humorous sadness.”

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Source: As You Like It

“O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art
As glorious to this night, being o'er my head
As is a winged messenger of heaven”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear; Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have waken'd death!”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet