William Shakespeare Quotes

What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no.

~ William Shakespeare

Stars hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires: The eyes wink at the hand; yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see

~ William Shakespeare

Time shall unfold what pleated cunning hides: Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.

~ William Shakespeare

I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains.

~ William Shakespeare

His forward voice now is to speak well of his friend. His backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract.

~ William Shakespeare

Come what come may, time and the hour run through the roughest day.

~ William Shakespeare

Young men's love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.

~ William Shakespeare

She gave me for my pains a world of sighs.

~ William Shakespeare

Finish, good lady; the bright day is done, And we are for the Dark. (Act 5, Scene 2)

~ William Shakespeare

Receive what cheer you may. The night is long that never finds the day.

~ William Shakespeare

The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, which still we thank as love.

~ William Shakespeare

Nothing in his life became him like leaving it.

~ William Shakespeare

It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.

~ William Shakespeare

Mistrust of good success hath done this deed.O hateful error, Melancholy's child,Why dost thou show to the apt thoughts of menThe things that are not? O Error, soon concieved,Thou never com'st unto a happy birth,But kill'st the mother that engendered thee.

~ William Shakespeare

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world.

~ William Shakespeare

Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter; dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty, beyond waht can be valued, rich or rare; no less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor; as much as child e'er loved, or father found; a love that makes breath poor, and speech unable; beyond all manner of so much I love you.

~ William Shakespeare

Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least, nor are those empty-hearted whose low sounds reverb no hollowness.

~ William Shakespeare

I profess myself an enemy to all other joys, which the most precious square of sense possesses, and find I am alone felicitate in your dear highness love.

~ William Shakespeare

If e'er again I meet him beard to beard, he's mine or I am his.

~ William Shakespeare

Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

~ William Shakespeare

So our virtuesLie in the interpretation of the time:And power, unto itself most commendable,Hath not a tomb so evident as a chairTo extol what it hath done.One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail.

~ William Shakespeare

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

~ William Shakespeare

What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy.Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week?Or sells eternity to get a toy?For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy?Or what fond beggar, but to touch the crown,Would with the sceptre straight be strucken down?

~ William Shakespeare

Those that much covet are with gain so fond,For what they have not, that which they possessThey scatter and unloose it from their bond,And so, by hoping more, they have but less;Or, gaining more, the profit of excessIs but to surfeit, and such griefs sustain,That they prove bankrupt in this poor-rich gain.

~ William Shakespeare

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,To the last syllable of recorded time;And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death.- Macbeth Act V, Scene V

~ William Shakespeare

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,It droppeth as the gentle rain from heavenUpon the place beneath: it is twice blest;It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomesThe 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'sWhen mercy seasons justice.

~ William Shakespeare

The quality of mercy is not strained;It droppeth as the gentle rain from heavenUpon the place beneath. It is twice blessed;It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomesThe throned monarch better than his crown; * * * * *It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;It is an attribute to God himself.

~ William Shakespeare

She will outstrip all praise and make it halt behind her.

~ William Shakespeare

O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! - Cassio (Act II, Scene iii)

~ William Shakespeare

    Oh, devil, devil!If that the earth could teem with woman’s tears,Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.Out of my sight!

~ William Shakespeare

I think the devil will not have me damned, lest the oil that's in me should set hell on fire.

~ William Shakespeare

What is a man, if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. Sure he that made us with such large discourse, looking before and after, gave us not that capability and god-like reason to fust in us unused.

~ William Shakespeare

My noble father,I do perceive here a divided duty.To you I am bound for life and education.My life and education both do learn meHow to respect you. You are the lord of my duty,I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband,And so much duty as my mother showedTo you, preferring you before her father,So much I challenge that I may professDue to the Moor my lord.

~ William Shakespeare

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

~ William Shakespeare

Men's evil manners live in brass, their virtue we write in water.

~ William Shakespeare

If I had a thousand sons, the first humane principle I would teach them should be to forswear thin potations and to addict themselves to sack.

~ William Shakespeare

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mockThe meat it feeds on.

~ William Shakespeare

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mockThe meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in bliss,Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger:But O, what damnèd minutes tells he o'erWho dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!(Act 3, scene 3, 165–171)

~ William Shakespeare

Trifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ.

~ William Shakespeare

Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,— For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

~ William Shakespeare