Quotations by William Shakespeare

"To thine own self be true -; And it must follow as the night the day; Thou canst not be false to any man"

"O, throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half."

"Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie."

"When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know she lies."

"Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none."

"life is 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 tall tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.""

"Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground."

"what seest thou else
in the dark backward and abysm of time?"

"i, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
to closeness and the bettering of my mind."

"like one
who having into truth, by telling of it,
made such a sinner of his memory,
to credit his own lie."

"my library
was dukedom large enough."

"From the still-vexed Bermoothes."

"I will be correspondent to command, And do my spiriting gently."

"Fill all thy bones with aches."

"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 fringed curtains of thine eye advance."

"A very ancient and fish-like smell."

"Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows."

"He that dies pays all debts."

"a kind
of excellent dumb discourse."

"merrily, merrily shall i live now,
under the blossom that hangs on the bough."

"Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits."

"o, how this spring of love resembleth
the uncertain glory of an april day!"

"that man that hath a tongue, i say, is no man,
if with his tongue he cannot win a woman."

"How use doth breed a habit in a man!"

"Come not within the measure of my wrath."

"I will make a Star-chamber matter of it."

"It is a familiar beast to man, and signifies love."

"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."

"Thou art the Mars of malcontents."

"We burn daylight."

"This is the short and the long of it."

"We have some salt of our youth in us."

"I cannot tell what the dickens his name is."

"Your hearts are mighty, your skins are whole."

"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."

"our doubts are traitors,
and make us lose the good we oft might win
by fearing to attempt."

"Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall."

"The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept."

"The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good."

"truth is truth
to the end of reckoning."

"they say, best men are moulded out of faults,
and, for the most, become much more the better
for being a little bad."

"Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast."

"He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat."

"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."

"Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much."

"I thank God I am as honest as any man living that is an old man and no honester than I."

"When he is best, he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast."

"I dote on his very absence."

"My meaning in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me that he is sufficient."

"The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose."

"It is a wise father that knows his own child."

"The little foolery that wise men have makes a great show."

"hereafter, in a better world than this,
i shall desire more love and knowledge of you."

"True is it that we have seen better days."

"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."

"If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."

"life is as tedious as a twice-told tale
vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man."

"this england never did, nor never shall,
lie at the proud foot of a conqueror."

"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."

"if all the year were playing holidays,
to sport would be as tedious as to work."

"He hath eaten me out of house and home."

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

"There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things."

"the gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day
is crept into the bosom of the sea."

"and many strokes, though with a little axe,
hew down and fell the hardest-timbered oak."

"An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told."

"A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!"

"the end crowns all,
and that old common arbitrator, time,
will one day end it."

"but, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
it is the east, and juliet is the sun."

"O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?"

"good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow,
that i shall say good night till it be morrow."

"Every man has his fault, and honesty is his."

"We have seen better days."

"Beware the ides of March."

"But, for my own part, it was Greek to me."

"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."

"Et tu, Brute!"

"how many ages hence
shall this our lofty scene be acted over
in states unborn and accents yet unknown!"

"cry "havoc," and let slip the dogs of war."

"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."

"for brutus is an honourable man;
so are they all, all honourable men."

"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."

"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?"

"the attempt and not the deed
confounds us."

"double, double toil and trouble;
fire burn, and cauldron bubble."

"by the pricking of my thumbs,
something wicked this way comes.
open, locks,
whoever knocks!"

"Out, damned spot! out, I say!"

"A little more than kin, and less than kind."

"Frailty, thy name is woman!"

"he was a man, take him for all in all,
i shall not look upon his like again."

"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."

"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."

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

"leave her to heaven
and to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
to prick and sting her."

"every man has business and desire,
such as it is."

"there are more things in heaven and earth, horatio,
than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

"Brevity is the soul of wit."

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

"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!"

"the devil hath power
to assume a pleasing shape."

"Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go."

"I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another."

"o, woe is me,
to have seen what i have seen, see what i see!"

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

"my words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
words without thoughts never to heaven go."

"i must be cruel, only to be kind:
thus bad begins, and worse remains behind."

"so full of artless jealousy is guilt,
it spills itself in fearing to be spilt."

"We know what we are, but know not what we may be."

"A hit, a very palpable hit."

"The rest is silence."

"now cracks a noble heart. good night sweet prince:
and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!"

"Although the last, not least."

"Nothing will come of nothing."

"Oh, that way madness lies; let me shun that."

"the worst is not
so long as we can say, "this is the worst.""

"Pray you now, forget and forgive."

"the gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
make instruments to plague us."

"i will wear my heart upon my sleeve
for daws to peck at."

"i am not merry; but i do beguile
the thing i am, by seeming otherwise."

"excellent wretch! perdition catch my soul,
but i do love thee! and when i love thee not,
chaos is come again."

"speak to me as to thy thinkings,
as thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of thoughts
the worst of words."

"o, beware, my lord, of jealousy!
it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
the meat it feeds on."

"i understand a fury in your words,
but not the words."

"my salad days,
when i was green in judgment."

"Small to greater matters must give way."

"age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
her infinite variety."

"i have
immortal longings in me."

"The game is up."

"I have not slept one wink."

"Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing."

"let me not to the marriage of true minds
admit impediments: love is not love
which alters when it alteration finds."

"Cursed be he that moves my bones."

"O, I am slain!"

"I like this place, and willingly would waste my time in it."

"To be a well-flavored man is the gift of fortune, but to write or read comes by nature."

"Oh God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!"

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once."

"What a deformed thief this fashion is."

"The more pity, that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly."

"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."

"though inclination be as sharp as will,
my stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
and, like a man to double business bound,
i stand in pause where i shall first begin,
and both neglect."

"In a false quarrel there is no true valour."

"glory is like a circle in the water,
which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,
till by broad spreading it disperses to naught."

"Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind."

"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."

"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."

"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me."

"I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience."

"Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like a toad, though ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in its head."

"Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end."

"While thou livest keep a good tongue in thy head."

"He is winding the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike."

"You cram these words into mine ears against the stomach of my sense."

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind."

"Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy."

"their understanding
begins to swell and the approaching tide
will shortly fill the reasonable shores
that now lie foul and muddy."

"We do not keep the outward form of order, where there is deep disorder in the mind."

"How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees."

"Virtue and genuine graces in themselves speak what no words can utter."

"Your face is a book, where men may read strange matters."

"Pity is the virtue of the law, and none but tyrants use it cruelly."

"The soul of this man is in his clothes."

"It is not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after."

"Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word."

"How use doth breed a habit in a man."

"i wish you well and so i take my leave,
i pray you know me when we meet again."

"lady you bereft me of all words,
only my blood speaks to you in my veins,
and there is such confusion in my powers."

"Mine honour is my life; both grow in one; take honour from me and my life is done."

"Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear."

"Thy words, I grant are bigger, for I wear not, my dagger in my mouth."

"For they are yet ear-kissing arguments."

"i must be cruel only to be kind;
thus bad begins, and worse remains behind."

"thou art all the comfort,
the gods will diet me with."

"i pray thee cease thy counsel,
which falls into mine ears as profitless
as water in a sieve."

"Assume a virtue, if you have it not."

"So may he rest, his faults lie gently on him!"

"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!"

"when we are born, we cry, that we are come
to this great stage of fools."

"He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself."

"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."

"Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood."

"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."

"I am not bound to please thee with my answers."

"Be great in act, as you have been in thought."

"The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords, in such a just and charitable war."

"i hate ingratitude more in a man
than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,
or any taint of vice whose strong corruption
inhabits our frail blood."

"Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge of thine own cause."

"the trust i have is in mine innocence,
and therefore am i bold and resolute."

"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."

"God bless thee; and put meekness in thy mind, love, charity, obedience, and true duty!"

"Courage mounteth with occasion."

"i shall despair. there is no creature loves me;
and if i die no soul will pity me:
and wherefore should they, since that i myself
find in myself no pity to myself?"

"False face must hide what the false heart doth know."

"Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books; but love from look, toward school with heavy looks."

"What the great ones do, the less will prattle of"

"Let the coming hour overflow with joy, and let pleasure drown the brim."

"Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners."

"he that commends me to mine own content
commends me to the thing i cannot get."

"Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind."

"I do begin to have bloody thoughts."

"I would fain die a dry death."

"come what come may,
time and the hour runs through the roughest day."

"There was a star danced, and under that was I born."

"If Love be rough with you, be rough with Love, prick Love for pricking, and you beat Love down."

"The road to true love never did run smooth."

"But no perfection is so absolute, That some impurity doth not pollute."

"My tongue will tell the anger of mine heart, Or else my heart, concealing it, will break."

"He that is giddy thinks the world turns round."

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

"Simply the thing that I am shall make me live."

"Things are neither good nor bad but thinking makes it so."

"Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everyone else."

"Action is eloquence."

"I must be cruel, only to be kind."

"Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds."

"I wasted time, now time doth waste me."

"If rough be love with you, be rough with love."

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

"The course of true love was never easy."

"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions."

"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain."

"Life is a tale told by an idiot -- full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

"I am wealthy in my friends."

"Love is merely madness."

"Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs, Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes, Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers’ tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall and a preserving sweet."

"The evil men do lives after them, the good is often interred with their bones."

"how far that little candle throws his beams!
so shines a good deed in a weary world."

"The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves if we are underlings."

"When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner."

"From this day forward until the end of the world...we in it shall be remembered...we band of brothers."

"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."

"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."

"And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything."

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."

"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt."

"To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

"Tempt not a desperate man."

"Why then the worlds mine oyster, Which I with sword shall open."

"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."

"Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance."

"Some men never seem to grow old. Always active in thought, always ready to adopt new ideas, they are never chargeable with foggyism. Satisfied, yet ever dissatisfied, settled, yet ever unsettled, they always enjoy the best of what is, are the first to find the best of what will be."

"It is meant that noble minds keep ever with their likes; for who so firm that cannot be seduced."

"Oft expectation fails, and most oft where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest; and despair most sits."

"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt."

"In time we hate that which we often fear."

"He is not great who is not greatly good."

"Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; the thief doth fear each bush an officer."

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