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William Shakespeare Quotes
Greatest English dramatist & poet
| “ | How my achievements mock me!
Troilus and Cressida, Act IV | ” |
| “ | Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.
Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 2 | ” |
| “ | He is winding the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.
The Tempest, Act II scene 1 | ” |
| “ | But love is blind and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit;
For if they could, Cupid himself would blush
To see me thus transformed to a boy.
The Merchant of Venice, Act II Scene 6 | ” |
| “ | My tongue will tell the anger of mine heart, Or else my heart, concealing it, will break.
Taming of the Shrew | ” |
| “ | Exit, pursued by a bear.
Stage direction in "The Winter's Tale" | ” |
| “ | When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste.
Sonnet xxx | ” |
| “ | Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing.
Sonnet lxxxvii | ” |
| “ | Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments: love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds.
Sonnet cxvi | ” |
| “ | O, it is excellent to have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.
Measure for Measure, 1604-1605 | ” |
| “ | Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters...
Macbeth, act 1 scene 5 | ” |
| “ | O that a man might know the end of this day's business ere it come!
Julius Caesar, 1599-1600 | ” |
| “ | We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
Hamlet, 1600 | ” |
| “ | Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
Hamlet, 1600 | ” |
| “ | Cursed be he that moves my bones.
Epitaph on his gravestone | ” |
| “ | Be not afraid of greatness: some men are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.
'Twelfth Night' | ” |
| “ | Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently. For in the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say, whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.
'The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,' Act III, scene ii | ” |
| “ | Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose that you resolved to effect.
'The Tempest' | ” |
| “ | If all the year were playing holidays; To sport would be as tedious as to work.
'The First Part of King Henry the IV' | ” |
| “ | Go to your bosom; Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.
'Measure for Measure' | ” |
| “ | Have more than thou showest; Speak less than thou knowest.
'King Lear,' Act I, Scene iv | ” |
| “ | The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life.
'King Henry IV part I' | ” |
| “ | This above all: to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day; Thou canst not then be false to any man.
'Hamlet,' Act I, Scene iii | ” |
| “ | Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend; And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry [economy].
'Hamlet,' Act I, Scene iii | ” |
| “ | Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
'Hamlet,' Act I, Scene iii | ” |
| “ | Costly thy habit [dress] as thy purse can buy; But not expressed in fancy - rich, not gaudy. For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
'Hamlet,' Act I, Scene iii | ” |
| “ | If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.
"Twelfth Night", Act 3 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour!
"Twelfth Night", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | The end crowns all,
And that old common arbitrator, Time,
Will one day end it.
"Troilus and Cressida", Act 4 scene 5 | ” |
| “ | Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.
"Titus Andronicus", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | We have seen better days.
"Timon of Athens", Act 4 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Every man has his fault, and honesty is his.
"Timon of Athens", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | What's gone and what's past help
Should be past grief.
"The Winter's Tale", Act 3 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | How use doth breed a habit in a man!
"The Two Gentlemen of Verona", Act 5 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | Come not within the measure of my wrath.
"The Two Gentlemen of Verona", Act 5 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man,
If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.
"The Two Gentlemen of Verona", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible,
As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on a steeple.
"The Two Gentlemen of Verona", Act 2 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | O, how this spring of love resembleth
The uncertain glory of an April day!
"The Two Gentlemen of Verona", Act 1 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | I have no other but a woman's reason:
I think him so, because I think him so.
"The Two Gentlemen of Verona", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits.
"The Two Gentlemen of Verona", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Where the bee sucks, there suck I;
In a cowslip's bell I lie.
"The Tempest", Act 5 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Merrily, merrily shall I live now,
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
"The Tempest", Act 5 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
"The Tempest", Act 4 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | A kind
Of excellent dumb discourse.
"The Tempest", Act 3 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | He that dies pays all debts.
"The Tempest", Act 3 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.
"The Tempest", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | A very ancient and fish-like smell.
"The Tempest", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time?
"The Tempest", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple:
If the ill spirit have so fair a house,
Good things will strive to dwell with 't.
"The Tempest", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | The fringed curtains of thine eye advance.
"The Tempest", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | My library
Was dukedom large enough.
"The Tempest", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Like one
Who having into truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,
To credit his own lie.
"The Tempest", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.
"The Tempest", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness and the bettering of my mind.
"The Tempest", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | I will be correspondent to command, And do my spiriting gently.
"The Tempest", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
"The Tempest", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | From the still-vexed Bermoothes.
"The Tempest", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Fill all thy bones with aches.
"The Tempest", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands:
Courtsied when you have, and kiss'd
The wild waves whist.
"The Tempest", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground.
"The Tempest", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | I would fain die a dry death.
"The Tempest", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en;
In brief, sir, study what you most affect.
"The Taming of the Shrew", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | This is the third time; I hope good luck lies in odd numbers.... There is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor", Act 5 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Your hearts are mighty, your skins are whole.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor", Act 4 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | I cannot tell what the dickens his name is.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor", Act 3 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | We have some salt of our youth in us.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor", Act 2 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | Why, then the world's mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | This is the short and the long of it.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | We burn daylight.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor", Act 1 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor", Act 1 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | Thou art the Mars of malcontents.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor", Act 1 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | It is a familiar beast to man, and signifies love.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | If there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have more occasion to know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | I will make a Star-chamber matter of it.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'T is mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
"The Merchant of Venice", Act 4 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | It is a wise father that knows his own child.
"The Merchant of Venice", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
"The Merchant of Venice", Act 1 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | My meaning in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me that he is sufficient.
"The Merchant of Venice", Act 1 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | When he is best, he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.
"The Merchant of Venice", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.
"The Comedy of Errors", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | A plague o' both your houses!
"Romeo and Juliet", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.
"Romeo and Juliet", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
"Romeo and Juliet", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
"Romeo and Juliet", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
"Romeo and Juliet", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
"Romeo and Juliet", Act 2 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | 'Tis neither here nor there.
"Othello", Act 4 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | I understand a fury in your words,
But not the words.
"Othello", Act 4 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Speak to me as to thy thinkings,
As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of thoughts
The worst of words.
"Othello", Act 3 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | O, now, for ever
Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!
Farewell the plumed troop and the big wars
That make ambition virtue! O, farewell!
Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!
And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats
The immortal Jove's dread clamours counterfeit,
Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone!
"Othello", Act 3 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.
"Othello", Act 3 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stolen,
Let him not know 't, and he's not robb'd at all.
"Othello", Act 3 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.
"Othello", Act 3 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,
But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,
Chaos is come again.
"Othello", Act 3 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | I am not merry; but I do beguile
The thing I am, by seeming otherwise.
"Othello", Act 2 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at.
"Othello", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | What a deformed thief this fashion is.
"Much Ado About Nothing", Act III scene iii | ” |
| “ | I thank God I am as honest as any man living that is an old man and no honester than I.
"Much Ado about Nothing", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much.
"Much Ado about Nothing", Act 2 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Friendship is constant in all other things
Save in the office and affairs of love:
Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues;
Let every eye negotiate for itself
And trust no agent.
"Much Ado about Nothing", Act 2 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat.
"Much Ado about Nothing", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | What's mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.
"Measure for Measure", Act 5 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Truth is truth
To the end of reckoning.
"Measure for Measure", Act 5 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | They say, best men are moulded out of faults,
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad.
"Measure for Measure", Act 5 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good.
"Measure for Measure", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.
"Measure for Measure", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.
"Measure for Measure", Act 2 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.
"Measure for Measure", Act 1 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | Lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, "Hold, enough!"
"Macbeth", Act 5 scene 8 | ” |
| “ | To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
"Macbeth", Act 5 scene 5 | ” |
| “ | Out, damned spot! out, I say!
"Macbeth", Act 5 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
"Macbeth", Act 4 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks!
"Macbeth", Act 4 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | The attempt and not the deed
Confounds us.
"Macbeth", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
"Macbeth", Act 2 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness.
"Macbeth", Act 1 scene 5 | ” |
| “ | And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence.
"Macbeth", Act 1 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | A jest's prosperity lies in the ear
Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
Of him that makes it.
"Love's Labour's Lost", Act 5 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.
"Love's Labour's Lost", Act 5 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.
"Love's Labour's Lost", Act 5 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | A man in all the world's new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrases in his brain.
"Love's Labour's Lost", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
"King Richard III", Act 5 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings;
Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.
"King Richard III", Act 5 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told.
"King Richard III", Act 4 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York,
And all the clouds that loured upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments,
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamped, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them,--
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun.
"King Richard III", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,--
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
"King Richard II", Act 2 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us.
"King Lear", Act 5 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | Pray you now, forget and forgive.
"King Lear", Act 4 scene 7 | ” |
| “ | The worst is not
So long as we can say, "This is the worst."
"King Lear", Act 4 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Oh, that way madness lies; let me shun that.
"King Lear", Act 3 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!
"King Lear", Act 1 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | Nothing will come of nothing.
"King Lear", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Although the last, not least.
"King Lear", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror.
"King John", Act 5 scene 7 | ” |
| “ | Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.
"King John", Act 3 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | 'T is better to be lowly born,
And range with humble livers in content,
Than to be perked up in a glistering grief,
And wear a golden sorrow.
"King Henry VIII", Act 2 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | And many strokes, though with a little axe,
Hew down and fell the hardest-timbered oak.
"King Henry VI Part III", Act 2 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day
Is crept into the bosom of the sea.
"King Henry VI Part II", Act 4 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things.
"King Henry V", Act 5 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.
"King Henry V", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.
"King Henry V", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
"King Henry IV Part II", Act 2 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | He hath eaten me out of house and home.
"King Henry IV Part II", Act 2 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work.
"King Henry IV Part I", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
"Julius Caesar", Act II Scene 2 | ” |
| “ | There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
"Julius Caesar", Act 4 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.
"Julius Caesar", Act 3 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men.
"Julius Caesar", Act 3 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!
"Julius Caesar", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Et tu, Brute!
"Julius Caesar", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Cry "Havoc," and let slip the dogs of war.
"Julius Caesar", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
"Julius Caesar", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
"Julius Caesar", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | But, for my own part, it was Greek to me.
"Julius Caesar", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Beware the ides of March.
"Julius Caesar", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | The rest is silence.
"Hamlet", Act 5 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince:
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
"Hamlet", Act 5 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | A hit, a very palpable hit.
"Hamlet", Act 5 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now; your gambols, your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? Quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come.
"Hamlet", Act 5 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.
"Hamlet", Act 4 scene 5 | ” |
| “ | I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
"Hamlet", Act 3 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard...
"Hamlet", Act 3 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't,
A brother's murder.
"Hamlet", Act 3 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
"Hamlet", Act 3 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
"Hamlet", Act 3 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Hamlet: 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.
"Hamlet", Act 3 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep: No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to,--'t is a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub: For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action.
"Hamlet", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | O, woe is me,
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
"Hamlet", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another.
"Hamlet", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go.
"Hamlet", Act 3 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!
"Hamlet", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.
"Hamlet", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
"Hamlet", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | The play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
"Hamlet", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | The devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape.
"Hamlet", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Brevity is the soul of wit.
"Hamlet", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
"Hamlet", Act 1 scene 5 | ” |
| “ | Leave her to heaven
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her.
"Hamlet", Act 1 scene 5 | ” |
| “ | Every man has business and desire,
Such as it is.
"Hamlet", Act 1 scene 5 | ” |
| “ | Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
"Hamlet", Act 1 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | But to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honoured in the breach than the observance.
"Hamlet", Act 1 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | 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 own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
"Hamlet", Act 1 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
"Hamlet", Act 1 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.
"Hamlet", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Frailty, thy name is woman!
"Hamlet", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | A little more than kin, and less than kind.
"Hamlet", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | No, 'tis slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie
All corners of the world.
"Cymbeline", Act 3 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | I have not slept one wink.
"Cymbeline", Act 3 scene 4 | ” |
| “ | The game is up.
"Cymbeline", Act 3 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
"As You Like It", Act 5 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts...
"As You Like It", Act 2 scene 7 | ” |
| “ | True is it that we have seen better days.
"As You Like It", Act 1 scene 7 | ” |
| “ | I met a fool i' the forest,
A motley fool.
"As You Like It", Act 1 scene 7 | ” |
| “ | The little foolery that wise men have makes a great show.
"As You Like It", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Hereafter, in a better world than this,
I shall desire more love and knowledge of you.
"As You Like It", Act 1 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | I have
Immortal longings in me.
"Antony and Cleopatra", Act 5 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Since Cleopatra died,
I have liv'd in such dishonour that the gods
Detest my baseness.
"Antony and Cleopatra", Act 4 scene 14 | ” |
| “ | Small to greater matters must give way.
"Antony and Cleopatra", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety.
"Antony and Cleopatra", Act 2 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | My salad days,
When I was green in judgment.
"Antony and Cleopatra", Act 1 scene 5 | ” |
| “ | Praising what is lost
Makes the remembrance dear.
"All's Well that Ends Well", Act 5 scene 3 | ” |
| “ | No legacy is so rich as honesty.
"All's Well that Ends Well", Act 3 scene 5 | ” |
| “ | Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none.
"All's Well That Ends Well", Act 1 Scene 1 | ” |
| “ | Lord, what fools these mortals be!
"A Midsummer Night's Dream", Act 3 scene 2 | ” |
| “ | For aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth.
"A Midsummer Night's Dream", Act 1 scene 1 | ” |
| “ | You cram these words into mine ears against the stomach of my sense. | ” |
| “ | While thou livest keep a good tongue in thy head. | ” |
| “ | When we are born, we cry, that we are come
To this great stage of fools. | ” |
| “ | When griping grief the heart doth wound,
and doleful dumps the mind opresses,
then music, with her silver sound,
with speedy help doth lend redress.
| ” |
| “ | We know what we are, but not what we may be. | ” |
| “ | We do not keep the outward form of order, where there is deep disorder in the mind. | ” |
| “ | We are advertis'd by our loving friends.
| ” |
| “ | Virtue and genuine graces in themselves speak what no words can utter. | ” |
| “ | Thy words, I grant are bigger, for I wear not, my dagger in my mouth. | ” |
| “ | Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.
| ” |
| “ | Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge of thine own cause. | ” |
| “ | Thou art all the comfort,
The Gods will diet me with. | ” |
| “ | Their understanding
Begins to swell and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shores
That now lie foul and muddy. | ” |
| “ | The trust I have is in mine innocence,
and therefore am I bold and resolute. | ” |
| “ | The soul of this man is in his clothes. | ” |
| “ | The sands are number'd that make up my life. | ” |
| “ | The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords, in such a just and charitable war.
| ” |
| “ | Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like a toad, though ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in its head. | ” |
| “ | Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind. | ” |
| “ | Strong reasons make strong actions.
| ” |
| “ | So may he rest, his faults lie gently on him! | ” |
| “ | See first that the design is wise and just: that ascertained, pursue it resolutely; do not for one repulse forego the purpose that you resolved to effect. | ” |
| “ | Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear. | ” |
| “ | Pity is the virtue of the law, and none but tyrants use it cruelly.
| ” |
| “ | Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie. | ” |
| “ | Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners.
| ” |
| “ | Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.
| ” |
| “ | My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go. | ” |
| “ | Mine honour is my life; both grow in one; take honour from me and my life is done. | ” |
| “ | Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind. | ” |
| “ | Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end. | ” |
| “ | Lady you bereft me of all words,
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins,
And there is such confusion in my powers. | ” |
| “ | It is not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after. | ” |
| “ | In time we hate that which we often fear. | ” |
| “ | In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility.
| ” |
| “ | In a false quarrel there is no true valour. | ” |
| “ | Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.
| ” |
| “ | I wish you well and so I take my leave,
I Pray you know me when we meet again. | ” |
| “ | I wasted time, and now doth time waste me. | ” |
| “ | I pray you bear me henceforth from the noise and rumour of the field, where I may think the remnant of my thoughts in peace, and part of this body and my soul with contemplation and devout desires. | ” |
| “ | I pray thee cease thy counsel,
Which falls into mine ears as profitless
as water in a sieve. | ” |
| “ | I must be cruel only to be kind;
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. | ” |
| “ | I hate ingratitude more in a man
than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,
or any taint of vice whose strong corruption
inhabits our frail blood. | ” |
| “ | I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience. | ” |
| “ | I dote on his very absence. | ” |
| “ | I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart: but the saying is true 'The empty vessel makes the greatest sound'. | ” |
| “ | I am not bound to please thee with my answers. | ” |
| “ | How use doth breed a habit in a man. | ” |
| “ | How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees.
| ” |
| “ | 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! | ” |
| “ | He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself. | ” |
| “ | God bless thee; and put meekness in thy mind, love, charity, obedience, and true duty! | ” |
| “ | Glory is like a circle in the water,
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,
Till by broad spreading it disperses to naught.
| ” |
| “ | Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood, garnish'd and deck'd in modest compliment, not working with the eye without the ear, and but in purged judgement trusting neither? Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem. | ” |
| “ | For they are yet ear-kissing arguments.
| ” |
| “ | Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood. | ” |
| “ | Blow, blow, thou winter wind
Thou art not so unkind,
As man's ingratitude.
| ” |
| “ | Be great in act, as you have been in thought. | ” |
| “ | Assume a virtue, if you have it not. | ” |
| “ | And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil. | ” |
| “ | And since you know you cannot see yourself,
so well as by reflection, I, your glass,
will modestly discover to yourself,
that of yourself which you yet know not of. | ” |
| “ | A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
As much or more we should ourselves complain. | ” |
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