William Shakespeare Quotes

“Strong reasons make strong actions let us go If you say ay, the king will not say no.”

“Come, and take choice of all my library, And so beguile thy sorrow.”

“Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion”

“What? do I love her, that I desire to hear her speak again, and feast upon her eyes”

“Experience is by industry achieved, And perfected by the swift course of time.”

“You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;But yet you draw not iron, for my heartIs true as steel: leave you your power to draw,And I shall have no power to follow you.”

“Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in, bear t that th' opposed may beware of thee.”

“He capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks holiday, he smells April and May.”

“Fools are as like husbands as pilchards are to herrings, the husband's the bigger.”

“Take you me for a sponge?”

“Tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age, Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburdened crawl toward death.”

“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”

“Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds.”

“Haply a woman's voice may do some goodWhen articles too nicely urged be stood on.”

“If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide, By self-example mayst thou be denied.”

“What is the city but the people?”

“When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner”

“A good leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; a black beard will turn white; a curl'd pate will grow bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow: but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon; or, rather, the sun, and not the moon, — for it shines bright, and never changes, but keeps his course truly.”

“Truly the souls of men are full of dread: Ye cannot reason almost with a man That looks not heavily and full of fear.”

“For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground, and tell sad stories of the death of kings... All murdered; for within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king, keeps Death his court... and with a little pin bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!”

“I should think this a gull, but that the white-bearded fellow speaks it; knavery cannot, sure, hide himself in such reverence.”

“thus with a kiss I die”

“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.”

“Do not speak like a death's-head, do not bid me remember mine end.”

“Thus hath the candle sing'd the moth. O these deliberate fools!”

“Report of fashions in proud Italy Whose manners still our tardy-apish nation Limps after in base imitation”

“There's not a shirt and a half in all my company, and the halfshirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over theshoulders like a herald's coat without sleeves.”

“Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?”

“I love a ballad but even too well if it be doleful matter merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed and sung lamentably.”

“I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking: I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment.”

“He's truly valiant that can wisely suffer The worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs His outsides, to wear them like his raiment, carelessly, And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart, To bring it into danger.”

“No metal can--no, not the hangman's axe--bear half the keenness of thy sharp envy.”

“They whose guilt within their bosom lies, imagine every eye beholds their blame.”

“A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers.”

“Our rash faultsMake trivial price of serious thing we have,Not knowing them until we know their grave.”

“The seasons change their manners, as the yearHad found some months asleep and leapt them over.”

“Soft pity enters an iron gate.”

“All is well ended if this suit be won. That you express content; which we will pay, With strife to please you, day exceeding day.”

“Most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath.”

“Do all men kill the things they do not love ............ 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”

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

“For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth bringsThat then I scorn to change my state with kings.”

“Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all, all shalldie.”

“Thieves for their robbery have authority When judges steal themselves.”

“A harmless necessary cat.”

“Give it an understanding, but no tongue.”

“The cheekIs apter than the tongue to tell an errand.”

“Minutes, hours, days, months, and years,Pass'd over to the end they were created,Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave.Ah, what a life were this!”

“I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?”

“By God, I cannot flatter, I do defy The tongues of soothers! but a braver place In my heart's love hath no man than yourself. Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.”