William Shakespeare Quotes

3,206 Sourced Quotes

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.

William Shakespeare
There was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass.

William Shakespeare
But be not afraid of greatness: some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

William Shakespeare
Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.

William Shakespeare
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.

William Shakespeare
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.

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

William Shakespeare
Our doubts are traitors
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.

William Shakespeare
For aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth.

William Shakespeare
A breath thou art,
Servile to all the skyey influences.

William Shakespeare
Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth But that our soft conditions and our hearts Should well agree with our external parts?

William Shakespeare
An old man, broken with the storms of state
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye;
Give him a little earth for charity.

William Shakespeare
Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?

William Shakespeare
All lovers swear more performance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform; vowing more than the perfection of ten and discharging less than the tenth part of one.

William Shakespeare
Thou canst not say I did it: never shake
Thy gory locks at me.

William Shakespeare
On the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?

William Shakespeare
What infinite heart's ease Must kings neglect that private men enjoy! And what have kings that privates have not too, Save ceremony, save general ceremony? And what art thou, thou idol ceremony? What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers? What are thy rents? what are thy comings-in? O ceremony! show me but thy worth.

William Shakespeare
Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.

William Shakespeare
I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine: There sleeps Titania some time of the night, Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight; And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin, Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.

William Shakespeare
You have too much respect upon the world:
They lose it that do buy it with much care.

William Shakespeare
To show our simple skill,
That is the true beginning of our end.

William Shakespeare
Ye gods, it doth amaze me,
A man of such a feeble temper should
So get the start of the majestic world,
And bear the palm alone.

William Shakespeare
What's past and what's to come is strew'd with husks And formless ruin of oblivion.

William Shakespeare
And then he drew a dial from his poke,
And, looking on it with lack-luster eye,
Says very wisely, "It is ten o'clock;
Thus may we see," quoth he, "how the world
wags."

William Shakespeare
Constant you are,
But yet a woman: and for secrecy,
No lady closer; for I well believe
Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know;
And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate.

William Shakespeare