William Shakespeare on Anniversary
1564–1616 England
← All quotes by William Shakespeare
116 quotes
Even at this sight
My heart is turn'd to stone: and while 'tis mine,
It shall be stony.
I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at; I am not what I am.
Othello (1603)
The very firstlings of my heart shall be
The firstlings of my hand.
Macbeth (1605)
No, the world must be peopled. When I said, I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.
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!
Men's vows are women's traitors! All good seeming,
By thy revolt, O husband, shall be thought
Put on for villany; not born where 't grows,
But worn a bait for ladies.
Cymbeline (1611)
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow.
If she deny to wed, I'll crave the day
When I shall ask the banns and when be married.
Most fair,
Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms
Such as will enter at a lady's ear
And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?
Henry V (1599)
Those he commands, move only in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
Macbeth (1605)
Sweet fellowship in shame!
One drunkard loves another of the name.
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married.
Yet, do thy worst, old Time; despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.
Let fair humanity abhor the deed
That spots and stains love's modest snow-white weed.
Time's the king of men,
He's both their parent, and he is their grave,
And gives them what he will, not what they crave.
And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says very wisely, "It is ten o'clock:
Thus we may see," quoth he, "how the world wags."
Fie, fie, how wayward is this foolish love
That, like a testy babe, will scratch the nurse
And presently all humbled kiss the rod!
He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such as she;
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
King John (1598)
Prosperity's the very bond of love.
Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
Or thy affection cannot hold the bent:
For women are as roses, whose fair flower
Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour.