Words matter. These are the best William Shakespeare Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Listen to many, speak to a few.
‘Tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems.
A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.
I was adored once too.
Death is a fearful thing.
Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.
Let no such man be trusted.
How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.
Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.
They say miracles are past.
God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.
Though she be but little, she is fierce.
Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping?
The fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.
O’ What may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!
Brevity is the soul of wit.
I see that the fashion wears out more apparel than the man.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
I must be cruel, only to be kind.
My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy.
Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.
But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive.
Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.
Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
I like not fair terms and a villain’s mind.
I were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.
No legacy is so rich as honesty.
The course of true love never did run smooth.
Like as the waves make towards the pebbl’d shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end.
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?
Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.
And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.
Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne’er loved them.
No, I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing.
Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear.
By that sin fell the angels.
There are many events in the womb of time, which will be delivered.
The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.
And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.
In a false quarrel there is no true valor.
A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.
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.
Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.
Now is the winter of our discontent.
Nothing can come of nothing.
Time and the hour run through the roughest day.
Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.
An overflow of good converts to bad.
Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
In time we hate that which we often fear.
I dote on his very absence.
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.
But men are men; the best sometimes forget.
There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.
There’s many a man has more hair than wit.
Exceeds man’s might: that dwells with the gods above.
I am not bound to please thee with my answer.
O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.
Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.
When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.
O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad!
To be, or not to be, that is the question.
He is winding the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.
This above all; to thine own self be true.
Alas, I am a woman friendless, hopeless!
Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
Lawless are they that make their wills their law.
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
Well, if Fortune be a woman, she’s a good wench for this gear.
Love is too young to know what conscience is.
O, had I but followed the arts!
Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.
To do a great right do a little wrong.
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.
When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.
I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart.
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.
The love of heaven makes one heavenly.
There was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass.
‘Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.
Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who hath any honesty in him.
Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
I say there is no darkness but ignorance.
‘Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after.
Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.
Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.
If it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul.
‘Tis better to bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.
Thou know’st the first time that we smell the air we wawl and cry. When we are born we cry, that we are come to this great state of fools.
Praise us as we are tasted, allow us as we prove.
Men’s vows are women’s traitors!
The wheel is come full circle.
God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.
Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.
O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil.
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. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
And why not death rather than living torment? To die is to be banish’d from myself; And Silvia is myself: banish’d from her Is self from self: a deadly banishment!
Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.
Men shut their doors against a setting sun.
Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.
If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
What, man, defy the devil. Consider, he’s an enemy to mankind.
As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him.
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