William Shakespeare quotes

Born
18 January 1882 Kilburn, London, England.

Died
31 January, 1956.

Occupation
Author.

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist.

If music be the food of love, play on.
– William Shakespeare

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.
– William Shakespeare

Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.
– William Shakespeare

Speak low, if you speak love.
– William Shakespeare

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.
– William Shakespeare

As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.
– William Shakespeare

Desire of having is the sin of covetousness.
– William Shakespeare

Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.
– William Shakespeare

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
– William Shakespeare

Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.
– William Shakespeare

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.
– William Shakespeare

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
– William Shakespeare

How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
– William Shakespeare

I like not fair terms and a villain’s mind.
– William Shakespeare

I give unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture.
– William Shakespeare

No, I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing.
– William Shakespeare

Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?
– William Shakespeare

Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who hath any honesty in him.
– William Shakespeare

Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.
– William Shakespeare

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
– William Shakespeare

Let no such man be trusted.
– William Shakespeare

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
– William Shakespeare

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
– William Shakespeare

Listen to many, speak to a few.
– William Shakespeare

I may neither choose who I would, nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father.
– William Shakespeare

Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.
– William Shakespeare

The course of true love never did run smooth.
– William Shakespeare

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
– William Shakespeare

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.
– William Shakespeare

To be, or not to be, that is the question.
– William Shakespeare

The wheel is come full circle.
– William Shakespeare

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.
– William Shakespeare

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.
– William Shakespeare

Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones.
– William Shakespeare

I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart.
– William Shakespeare

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.
– William Shakespeare

There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.
– William Shakespeare

If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me.
– William Shakespeare

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.
– William Shakespeare

Give thy thoughts no tongue.
– William Shakespeare

Farewell, fair cruelty.
– William Shakespeare

How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
– William Shakespeare

Love is too young to know what conscience is.
– William Shakespeare

O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!
– William Shakespeare

The valiant never taste of death but once.
– William Shakespeare

Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.
– William Shakespeare

Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have Immortal longings in me..
– William Shakespeare

To do a great right do a little wrong.
– William Shakespeare

I am not bound to please thee with my answer.
– William Shakespeare

There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.
– William Shakespeare

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
– William Shakespeare

No legacy is so rich as honesty.
– William Shakespeare

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.
– William Shakespeare

The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
– William Shakespeare

It is the stars, The stars above us, govern our conditions.
– William Shakespeare

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
– William Shakespeare

Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.
– William Shakespeare

I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire.
– William Shakespeare

But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive.
– William Shakespeare

Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent.
– William Shakespeare

Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart.
– William Shakespeare

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottage princes’ palaces.
– William Shakespeare

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.
– William Shakespeare

Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne’er loved them.
– William Shakespeare

I must be cruel, only to be kind.
– William Shakespeare

I say there is no darkness but ignorance.
– William Shakespeare

Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing.
– William Shakespeare

Boldness be my friend.
– William Shakespeare

Exceeds man’s might: that dwells with the gods above.
– William Shakespeare

We are time’s subjects, and time bids be gone.
– William Shakespeare

Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.
– William Shakespeare

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
– William Shakespeare

An overflow of good converts to bad.
– William Shakespeare

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.
– William Shakespeare

When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.
– William Shakespeare

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
– William Shakespeare

Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.
– William Shakespeare

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.
– William Shakespeare

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?
– William Shakespeare

How well he’s read, to reason against reading!
– William Shakespeare

The most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is and steal out of your company.
– William Shakespeare

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
– William Shakespeare

If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honor.
– William Shakespeare

In a false quarrel there is no true valor.
– William Shakespeare

It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.
– William Shakespeare

Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.
– William Shakespeare

Now is the winter of our discontent.
– William Shakespeare

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.
– William Shakespeare

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.
– William Shakespeare

This above all; to thine own self be true.
– William Shakespeare

Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.
– William Shakespeare

The love of heaven makes one heavenly.
– William Shakespeare

Nothing can come of nothing.
– William Shakespeare

God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.
– William Shakespeare

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
– William Shakespeare

The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch, which hurts and is desired.
– William Shakespeare

There is no darkness but ignorance.
– William Shakespeare

The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.
– William Shakespeare

O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
– William Shakespeare

Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.
– William Shakespeare

We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
– William Shakespeare

Alas, I am a woman friendless, hopeless!
– William Shakespeare

There’s many a man has more hair than wit.
– William Shakespeare

Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping?
– William Shakespeare

O, had I but followed the arts!
– William Shakespeare

But men are men; the best sometimes forget.
– William Shakespeare