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

Well, if my wind were but long enough to say my prayers, I would repent.

Treason is but trusted like the fox
Who, ne'er so tame, so cherish'd and locked up,
Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.

He was indeed the glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.

When I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into
Charybdis, your mother.

Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart
As I do thee.

Dost thou now fall over to my foes?
Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for shame,
And hang a calf's skin on those recreant limbs.

King John (1598)

Did he break into tears?
In great measure.
A kind overflow of kindness: there are no faces truer than those that are so washed.

Done to death by slanderous tongues,
Was the Hero that here lies.

I have the toothache.
* * * * * *
What! sigh for the toothache?

I have seen the cannon,
When it hath blown his ranks into the air
And, like the devil, from his very arm
Puff’d his own brother.

When did friendship take
A breed for barren metal of his friend?

Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.

Othello (1603)

So full of shapes is fancy,
That it alone is high fantastical.

Meagre were his looks,
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones.

Romeo and Juliet (1597)

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow.

King John (1598)

But the full sum of me * *
Is an unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractis'd;
Happy in this, she is not yet so old
But she may learn.

And then a whoreson jackanapes must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed mine oaths of him and might not spend them at my pleasure.

Cymbeline (1611)

Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort
As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit
That could be mov'd to smile at anything.

Julius Cæsar (1599)

Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
Brags of his substance, not of ornament:
They are but beggars that can count their worth.

Romeo and Juliet (1597)

O melancholy!
Who ever yet could sound thy bottom? find
The ooze, to show what coast thy sluggish crare
Might easiliest harbour in?

Cymbeline (1611)

Attribution

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