William Shakespeare Quotes

1564–1616 England

William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.

England
Actors
Playwrights
Poets

Also known as: Shakespeare, Shakespeare, William, Shakespearean, Shakspeare

Random William Shakespeare quote

2,353 quotes

God hath blessed you with a good name: to be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune, but to write and read comes by nature.

Glory is like a circle in the water,
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself
Till, by broad spreading it disperse to nought.

For men, like butterflies,
Show not their mealy wings but to the summer.

Troilus and Cressida (1602)

O, what authority and show of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal!

Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile;
Filths savour but themselves.

For this relief, much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,
And I am sick at heart.

There is an old poor man
Oppressed with two weak evils, age and hunger.

But then the mind much sufferance doth o'erskip,
When grief hath mates.

King Lear (1608)

Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.

Macbeth (1605)

See, see what showers arise,
Blown with the windy tempest of my heart.

When we are born we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools.

King Lear (1608)

O mischief, thou art swift
To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!

Oft expectation fails and most oft there
Where most it promises, and oft it hits
Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.

They say he parted well, and paid his score;
And so, God be with him!

Macbeth (1605)

Calumny will sear
Virtue itself;—these shrugs, these hums, and ha's.

Go to your bosom;
Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.

Measure for Measure (1603)

It may be right; but you are i' the wrong
To speak before your time.

Measure for Measure (1603)

All these woes shall serve
For sweet discourses in our time to come.

Romeo and Juliet (1597)

Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts
To courtship and such fair ostents of love
As shall conveniently become you there.

He is so plaguy proud that the death tokens of it
Cry "No recovery."

Troilus and Cressida (1602)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: William Shakespeare (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.