William Shakespeare Quotes

3,205 Sourced Quotes

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.

William Shakespeare
LEONATO Neighbours, you are tedious. DOGBERRY It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the poor duke's officers; but truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a king, I could find it in my heart to bestow it all of your worship.

William Shakespeare
Expect Saint Martin's summer, halcyon days.

William Shakespeare
Say, thou art mine; and ever, My love, as it begins, shall so persevere

William Shakespeare
Have you not made a universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks,
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?

William Shakespeare
Came there a certain lord, neat, and trimly dress'd, Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new-reap'd, Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home: He was perfumed like a milliner, And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held A pouncet-box, which ever and anon He gave his nose and took 't away again.

William Shakespeare
A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear himself talk, and will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month.

William Shakespeare
O! thou hast damnable iteration, and art, indeed, able to corrupt a saint.

William Shakespeare
Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice, He offers in another's enterprise; But more in Troilus thousand-fold I see Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be, Yet hold I off.

William Shakespeare
And in some perfumes there is more delight than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know that music hath a far more pleasing sound.

William Shakespeare
It is not vain glory for a man and his glass to confer in his own chamber.

William Shakespeare
Jog on, jog on, the footpath way,
And merrily hent the stile-a:
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a.

William Shakespeare
The world is grown so bad That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.

William Shakespeare
What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me; no, nor woman neither, though, by your smiling, you seem to say so.

William Shakespeare
Methinks I see my father … in my mind's eye, Horatio.

William Shakespeare
If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

William Shakespeare
He is very well-favoured, and he speaks very shrewishly: one would think his mother's milk were scarce out of him.

William Shakespeare
A good old man, sir; he will be talking: as they say, When the age is in, the wit is out.

William Shakespeare
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.

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