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

I pull in resolution, and begin
To doubt the equivocation of the fiend
That lies like truth: "Fear not, till Birnam wood
Do come to Dunsinane."

Macbeth (1605)

Why, universal plodding poisons up
The nimble spirits in the arteries,
As motion and long-during action tires
The sinewy vigour of the traveller.

For youth no less becomes
The light and careless livery that it wears,
Than settled age his sables, and his weeds
Importing health and graveness.

Behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottomes through the furrow'd sea,
Breasting the lofty surge.

Henry V (1599)

Look, they weep,
And I, an ass, am onion-eyed.

I have perceived a most faint neglect of late, which I have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity than as a very pretence and purpose of unkindness.

King Lear (1608)

Rings put upon his fingers,
A most delicious banquet by his bed,
And brave attendants near him when he wakes,
Would not the beggar then forget himself?

What, shall one of us,
That struck the foremost man of all this world
But for supporting robbers, shall we now
Contaminate our fingers with base bribes?

Julius Caesar (1599)

The great King of kings
Hath in the table of his law commanded
That thou shalt do no murder: and wilt thou, then,
Spurn at his edict and fulfill a man's?

Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office; and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,
Remember'd tolling a departed friend.

Two may keep counsel, putting one away.

Romeo and Juliet (1597)

He talks of wood: it is some carpenter.

Whiter than new snow on a raven's back.

Romeo and Juliet (1597)

He is well paid that is well satisfied.

To take arms against a sea of troubles.

Great griefs, I see, medicine the less.

Cymbeline (1611)

This is a man's invention and his hand.

You have among you many a purchas'd slave,
Which, like your asses and your dogs and mules,
You use in abject and in slavish parts,
Because you bought them.

Stepp'd me in poverty to the very lips.

Othello (1603)

A staff is quickly found to beat a dog.

Attribution

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