William Shakespeare Quotes

Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.

A sad tale's best for winter. I have one of sprites and goblins.

The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart-see, they bark at me.

I crave fit disposition for my wife;Due reference of place, and exhibition;With such accommodation, and besort,As levels with her breeding.

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 rims 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?

If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep,My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne,And all this day an unaccustomed spiritLifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.

In such business Action is eloquence, and the eyes of th’ ignorant More learned than the ears.

Good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.

Time is the king of men.

I would give all of my fame for a pot of ale and safety.

There is a history in all men's lives.

Talkers are no good doers.

Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.

When you depart from me sorrow abides and happiness takes his leave.

Done to death by slanderous tongue

Two may keep counsel putting one away!

I am not yet of Percy's mind, the Hotspur of the North; he that kills me some six or seven dozen of Scots as a breakfast, washes his hands, and says to his wife, 'Fie upon this quiet life! I want work.

A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.

What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted! Thrice is he arm'd, that hath his quarrel just.

Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye.

Flout 'em, and scout 'em; and scout 'em, and flout 'em; / Thought is free.

Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,' Like the poor cat i' the adage?

Never anything can be amiss, when simpleness and duty tender it.

I will praise any man that will praise me.

Their understandingBegins to swell and the approaching tideWill shortly fill the reasonable shoresThat now lie foul and muddy.

It's easy for someone to joke about scars if they've never been cut.

Pray, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts.

What's done is done. The joy is in the doing.

But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.

Come not within the measure of my wrath.

What the vengeance, could he not speak 'em fair?

Promising is the very air o' the time; it opens the eyes of expectation.

I would that I were low laid in my grave.I am not worth this coil that's made for me.

Instinct is a great matter. I was now a coward on instinct.

That strain again! It had a dying fall:O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet soundThat breathes upon a bank of violets,Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:'Tis not so sweet as it was before.

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

Knavery's plain face is never seen till used.

They have been grand-jurymen since before Noah was a sailor

Ships are but boards, sailors but men; there be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves, I mean pirates, and thenthere is the peril of waters, winds, and rocks.

Here I and sorrows sit; Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it.

And thence from Athens turn away our eyes To seek new friends and stranger companies.

A man should be what he seems.

And either victory, or else a grave.

Sometimes when we are labeled, when we are branded our brand becomes our calling.

Good reasons must of force give place to better.

All's well if all ends well.

I have lived long enough. My way of life is to fall into the sere, the yellow leaf, and that which should accompany old age, as honor, love, obedience, troops of friends I must not look to have.

Do you take me for a sponge, my lord? hamlet: Ay, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. rosencrantz: I understand you not, my lord. hamlet: I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

The hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.

No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck So many blows upon this face of mine And made no deeper wounds?

Know my name is lost, By treason's tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit; Yet am I noble as the adversary I come to cope.

A lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing.

Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound Upon a wheel of fire; that mine own tears Do scald like molten lead.

Light vanity, insatiate cormorant, Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.

To sleep perchance to dream

Sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye.

Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just, And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.

The liquid drops of tears that you have shedShall come again, transform'd to orient pearl,Advantaging their loan with interestOf ten times double gain of happiness.

Look to her, Moor, if thou has eyes to see. She has deceived her father, and may thee.

The very instant I saw you, did My heart fly to your service; there resides To make me slave to it. ...mine unworthiness, that dare not offer What I desire to give, and much less take What I shall die to want.