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

Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise,
Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation,
Figures pedantical.

What's the news?
None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.
Then is doomsday near.

O polished perturbation! golden care!
That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide
To many a watchful night!

I have been worth the whistle. O Goneril.
You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
Blows in your face.

King Lear (1608)

Shall remain!
Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you
His absolute "shall"?

If the boy have not a woman's gift
To rain a shower of commanded tears,
An onion will do well for such a shift.

So smile the Heavens upon this holy act
That after hours with sorrow chide us not!

Romeo and Juliet (1597)

Wilt thou have music? hark! Apollo plays
And twenty caged nightingales do sing.

Since every Jack became a gentleman,
There's many a gentle person made a Jack.

Richard III (1591)

You may as well
Forbid the sea for to obey the moon
As or by oath remove or counsel shake
The fabric of his folly.

Honours thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our foregoers.

How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown,
Within whose circuit is Elysium,
And all that poets feign of bliss and joy.

Whilst I was big in clamour came there in a man,
Who, having seen me in my worst estate,
Shunn'd my abhorr'd society.

King Lear (1608)

He makes a July's day short as December,
And with his varying childness cures in me
Thoughts that would thick my blood.

Where is our usual manager of mirth?
What revels are in hand? Is there no play,
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?

As is the bud bit with an envious worm,
Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.

Romeo and Juliet (1597)

Take your paper, too,
And let me have them very well perfumed,
For she is sweeter than perfume itself
To whom they go to.

Fates, we will know your pleasures:
That we shall die we know; 'tis but the time
And drawing days out, that men stand upon.

Julius Cæsar (1599)

Poor and content is rich and rich enough,
But riches fineless is as poor as winter
To him that ever fears he shall be poor.

Othello (1603)

The image of a wicked heinous fault
Lives in his eye: that close aspect of his
Does show the mood of a much troubled breast.

King John (1598)

Attribution

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