William Shakespeare Quotes

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May these William Shakespeare quotes on many subjects inspire you to never give up and keep working towards your goals. Who knows—success could be just around the corner.

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William Shakespeare is regarded as the greatest writer and poet ever known in the English language who authored world’s greatest poems, drama and sonnets. The bard, who remains an icon in the literary world, wrote over 38 plays, 154 sonnets and several poems and most of his works are still performed all over the world.

’Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers. – William Shakespeare

‘Tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems. – William Shakespeare

‘Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed, When not to be, receives reproach of being, And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed, Not by our feeling, but by others’ seeing. – William Shakespeare

‘Tis better to bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of. – William Shakespeare

‘Tis brief, my lord…as woman’s love. – William Shakespeare

‘Tis dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink; but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. – William Shakespeare

‘Tis neither here nor there. – William Shakespeare

‘Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after. – William Shakespeare

‘Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall. – William Shakespeare

‘Tis sweet to kiss a girl on Spring’s first day, but only half so sweet as ’tis to kiss a girl on her bootyhole. – William Shakespeare

‘Tis the soldier’s life to have their balmy slumbers waked with strife. – William Shakespeare

‘Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss. – William Shakespeare

‘Tis too much proved–that with devotion’s visage
And pious action we do sugar o’er
The devil himself. – William Shakespeare

‘Twas merry when You wagered on your angling, when your diver Did hang a salt fish on his hook, which he With fervency drew up.

– William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare Quotes

William Shakespeare Quotes

A book? O, rare one, Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment Nobler than that it covers. – William Shakespeare

A breath thou art, Servile to all the skyey influences. – William Shakespeare

A college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humor. Dost thou think I care for a satire or an epigram? – William Shakespeare

A countenance more in sorrow than in anger. – William Shakespeare

A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel! O wise young judge, how I do honor thee! – William Shakespeare

A dream itself is but a shadow. – William Shakespeare

A fellow by the hand of nature mark’d, Quoted, and sign’d, to do a deed of shame. – William Shakespeare

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool. – William Shakespeare

A fool’s bolt is soon shot. – William Shakespeare

A fool, a fool! I met a fool i’ th’ forest, A motley fool! a miserable world! As I do live by food, I met a fool Who laid him down and basked him in the sun And railed on Lady Fortune in good terms, In good set terms, and yet a motley fool. – William Shakespeare

A friend in the court is better than a penny in purse. – William Shakespeare

A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow. – William Shakespeare

A friend should bear a friend’s infirmities, But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. – William Shakespeare

A fusty nut with no kernel. – William Shakespeare

A gentleman that loves to hear himself talk, will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month. – William Shakespeare

A glooming peace this morning with it brings; The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head: Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished: For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. – William Shakespeare

A good heart ‘is worth gold. – William Shakespeare

A good heart is the sun and the moon; or, rather, the sun and not the moon, for it shines bright and never changes. – William Shakespeare

A good man’s fortune may grow out at heels. – William Shakespeare

A good old man, sir. He will be talking. As they say, when the age is in, the wit is out. – William Shakespeare

A good sherris-sack hath a twofold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain,… makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes. – William Shakespeare

A good wit will make use of anything. – William Shakespeare

A grandma’s name is little less in love than is the doting title of a mother. – William Shakespeare

A great cause of the night is lack of the sun. – William Shakespeare

A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching! – William Shakespeare

A great while ago the world begun, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain; But that’s all one, our play is done, And we’ll strive to please you every day. – William Shakespeare

A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us; His dew falls everywhere. – William Shakespeare

A harmless necessary cat. – William Shakespeare

A heavier task could not have been impos’d, Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable. – William Shakespeare

A high hope for a low heaven. – William Shakespeare

A hit, a very palpable hit. – William Shakespeare

A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! – William Shakespeare

A hundred thousand welcomes: I could weep, And I could laugh; I am light and heavy: Welcome. – William Shakespeare

A jest’s prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Of him that makes it. – William Shakespeare

A kind Of excellent dumb discourse. – William Shakespeare

A knot you are of damned bloodsuckers. – William Shakespeare

A lean cheek, – a blue eye, and sunken, – an unquestionable spirit, – a beard neglected:- Then your hose should be ungartered, your bonnet unhanded, your sleeve unbuttoned, your shoe untied, and every thing about you demonstrating a careless desolation. – William Shakespeare

A light heart lives long. – William Shakespeare

A lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing. – William Shakespeare

A little more than kin, and less than kind. – William Shakespeare

A little snow, tumbled about, anon becomes a mountain. – William Shakespeare

A lover’s eyes will gaze an eagle blind. – William Shakespeare

A maiden hath no tongue–but thought. – William Shakespeare

A man can die but once. – William Shakespeare

A man cannot make him laugh – but that’s no marvel; he drinks no wine. – William Shakespeare

A man I am cross’d with adversity. – William Shakespeare

A man in all the world’s new fashion planted, That hath a mint of phrases in his brain. – William Shakespeare

A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age. – William Shakespeare

A man should be what he seems. – William Shakespeare

A merry heart goes all the way, – A sad one tires in an hour. – William Shakespeare

A nun of winter’s sisterhood kisses not more religiously; the very ice of chastity is in them. – William Shakespeare

A pal is one that is aware you while you are, understands where you have already been, accepts whatever you are becoming, and continue to, carefully means that you can develop. – William Shakespeare

A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued, and neither party loser. – William Shakespeare

A plague o’ both your houses. – William Shakespeare

A plague of sighing and grief! It blows a man up like a bladder. – William Shakespeare

A plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another! – William Shakespeare

A politician . . . one that would circumvent God. – William Shakespeare

A poor thing, perhaps, but my own. – William Shakespeare

A right judgment draws us a profit from all things we see. – William Shakespeare

A scar nobly got is a good livery of honor. – William Shakespeare

A sentence is but a cheveril glove to a good wit; How quickly the wrong side may be turned outward! – William Shakespeare

A smile cures the wounding of a frown. – William Shakespeare

A stirring dwarf we do allowance give Before a sleeping giant. – William Shakespeare

A substitute shines brightly as a king Until a king be by, and then his state Empties itself, as dot an inland brook Into the main of waters. – William Shakespeare

A table full of welcome makes scarce one dainty dish. – William Shakespeare

A thousand moral paintings I can show That shall demonstrate these quick blows of Fortune’s More pregnantly than words. – William Shakespeare

A time, methinks, too short To make a world-without-end bargain in. – William Shakespeare

A true repentance shuns the evil itself, more than the external suffering or the shame. – William Shakespeare

A turn or two I’ll walk To still my beating mind. – William Shakespeare

A very ancient and fish-like smell. – William Shakespeare

A very little little let us do And all is done. – William Shakespeare

A very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience. – William Shakespeare

A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers. – William Shakespeare

A virtuous and a Christianlike conclusion– To pray for them that have done scathe to us. – William Shakespeare

A wicked conscience mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy thoughts. – William Shakespeare

A woman impudent and mannish grown Is not more loath’d than an effeminate man. – William Shakespeare

A woman is a dish for the gods, if the devil dress her not. – William Shakespeare

A woman that is like a German clock, Still a-repairing, ever out of frame, And never going aright, being a watch, But being watched that it may still go right! – William Shakespeare

A woman would run through fire and water for such a kind heart. – William Shakespeare

A woman’s fitness comes by fits. – William Shakespeare

A woman’s thought runs before her actions. – William Shakespeare

A wretched soul bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry; But were we burdened with like weight of pain, As much, or more, we should ourselves complain. – William Shakespeare

A young woman in love always looks like patience on a monument smiling at grief. – William Shakespeare

Abandon all remorse; On horror’s head horrors accumulate. – William Shakespeare

Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord, That would reduce these bloody days again And make poor England weep in streams of blood! Let them not live to taste this land’s increase That would with treason wound this fair land’s peace! Now civil wounds are stopped, peace lives again: That she may long live here, God say amen! – William Shakespeare

Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it; the one brings fuel, the other blows it till it burns clear. – William Shakespeare

Absence from those we love is self from self – a deadly banishment. – William Shakespeare

Action is eloquence. – William Shakespeare

Adieu! I have too grieved a heart to take a tedious leave. – William Shakespeare

Adieu, adieu, adieu! remember me. – William Shakespeare

Adversity makes strange bedfellows. – William Shakespeare

Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy. – William Shakespeare

Affection faints not like a pale-faced coward, But then woos best when most his choice is froward. – William Shakespeare

Affection, mistress of passion, sways it to the mood of what it likes or loathes. – William Shakespeare

After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well. Treason has done his worst. Nor steel nor poison, malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing can touch him further. – William Shakespeare

After your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live. – William Shakespeare

Against ill chances men are ever merry, But heaviness foreruns the good event. – William Shakespeare

Against self-slaughter There is a prohibition so divine That cravens my weak hand. – William Shakespeare

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale. – William Shakespeare

Ah me, how weak a thing The heart of woman is! – William Shakespeare

Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds Do sorely ruffle; for many miles about There’s scarce a bush. – William Shakespeare

Alas, I am a woman friendless, hopeless! – William Shakespeare

Alas, poor Yorick I knew him, Horatio a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now your gambols, your songs your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar Not one now, to mock your own grinning Quite chap-fallen Now get you to my lady’s chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come. – William Shakespeare

Alas, sir, how fell you besides your five wits?” Malvolio: “Fool, there was never a man so notoriously abused. I am as well in my wits, fool, as thou art.” Feste: “But as well? Then you are mad indeed, if you be no better in you wits than a fool. – William Shakespeare

Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, Should without eyes see pathways to his will! – William Shakespeare

Alas, the frailty is to blame, not we For such as we are made of, such we be. – William Shakespeare

All glory comes from daring to begin. – William Shakespeare

All gold and silver rather turn to dirt, An ’tis no better reckoned but of these Who worship dirty gods. – William Shakespeare

All goodness is poison to thy stomach. – William Shakespeare

All his successors gone before him have done ‘t; and all his ancestors that come after him may. – William Shakespeare

All hoods make not monks. – William Shakespeare

All impediments in fancy’s course Are motives of more fancy. – William Shakespeare

All is not well; I doubt some foul play. – William Shakespeare

All is well ended, if the suit be won. – William Shakespeare

All lovers swear more performance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform; vowing more than the perfection of ten, and discharging less than the tenth part of one. – William Shakespeare

All men’s faces are true, whatsome’er their hands are. – William Shakespeare

All offences come from the heart. – William Shakespeare

All pity choked with custom of fell deeds. – William Shakespeare

All pride is willing pride. – William Shakespeare

All surfeit is the father of much fast. – William Shakespeare

All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told. – William Shakespeare

All the contagion of the south light on you, You shames of Rome! you herd of–boils and plagues Plaster you o’er; that you may be abhorr’d Further than seen, and one infect another Against the wind a mile! – William Shakespeare

All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand! Oh, oh, oh! – William Shakespeare

All the world is a stage and each and every person is a player. – William Shakespeare

All the world’s a stage … and you better have a zoning variance or it’s coming down. – William Shakespeare

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. – William Shakespeare

All things that we ordained festival Turn from their office to black funeral– Our instruments to melancholy bells, Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast; Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change; Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse; And all things change them to the contrary. – William Shakespeare

All thy vexations Were but my trials of thy love, and thou Hast strangely stood the test; here, afore heaven, I ratify this my rich gift. – William Shakespeare

All’s well that ends well; still the fine’s the crown. Whate’er the course, the end is the renown. – William Shakespeare

Allow not nature more than nature needs. – William Shakespeare

Although the last, not least. – William Shakespeare

Ambition’s debt is paid. – William Shakespeare

Ambition, the soldier’s virtue, rather makes choice of loss, than gain which darkens him. – William Shakespeare

An angel; or, if not, An earthly paragon. – William Shakespeare

An arrant traitor as any is in the universal world, or in France, or in England. – William Shakespeare

An envious fever of pale and bloodless emulation. – William Shakespeare

An honest man, sir, is able to speak for himself, when a knave is not. – William Shakespeare

An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told. – William Shakespeare

An old black ram is tupping your white ewe. – William Shakespeare

An old man is twice a child. – William Shakespeare

An old man, broken with the storms of state, Is come to lay his weary bones among ye; Give him a little earth for charity! – William Shakespeare

An overflow of good converts to bad. – William Shakespeare

An two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind. – William Shakespeare

And all my mother came into mine eyes And gave me up to tears. – William Shakespeare

And all this day an unaccustomed spirit lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts. – William Shakespeare

And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name. – William Shakespeare

And do as adversaries do in law, strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. – William Shakespeare

And either victory, or else a grave. – William Shakespeare

And fearless minds climb soonest unto crowns. – William Shakespeare

And he goes through life, his mouth open, and his mind closed. – William Shakespeare

And I did laugh sans intermission an hour by his dial. O noble fool, a worthy fool — motley’s the only wear. – William Shakespeare

And I will make it felony to drink small beer. – William Shakespeare

And in the morn and liquid dew of youth, Contagious blastments are are most imminent. – William Shakespeare

And it is very much lamented,… That you have no such mirrors as will turn Your hidden worthiness into your eye That you might see your shadow. – William Shakespeare

And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glittering o’er my fault,
Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
Than that which hath no foil to set it off. – William Shakespeare

And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? – William Shakespeare

And many strokes, though with a little axe, Hew down and fell the hardest-timbered oak. – William Shakespeare

And mind, with my heart in’t; and now farewell Till half an hour hence. – William Shakespeare

And nature must obey necessity. – William Shakespeare

And oftentimes, excusing of a fault Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse, – As patches, set upon a little breach, Discredit more in hiding of the fault Than did the fault before it was so patched. – William Shakespeare

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s In deepest consequence.  – William Shakespeare

And seeing ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. – William Shakespeare

And send him many years of sunshine days!  – William Shakespeare

And since you know you cannot see yourself, so well as by reflection, I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself, that of yourself which you yet know not of. – William Shakespeare

And teach me how To name the bigger light, and how the less, That burn by day and night … – William Shakespeare

And the more pity that great folk should have count’nance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even-Christen. – William Shakespeare

And therefore is love said to be a child, Because in choice he is so oft beguil’d. – William Shakespeare

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. – William Shakespeare

And thou, all-shaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ the world! Crack nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once That makes ingrateful man!

And though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with gold. – William Shakespeare

And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenge. – William Shakespeare

And when I am forgotten, as I shall be, And asleep in dull cold marble, where no mention Of me must be heard of, say, I taught thee. – William Shakespeare

And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony. – William Shakespeare

And where the offence is, let the great axe fall. – William Shakespeare

And why not death rather than living torment? To die is to be banish’d from myself; And Silvia is myself: banish’d from her Is self from self: a deadly banishment! – William Shakespeare

Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn’d, Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked, or charitable, Thou com’st in such a questionable shape, That I will speak to thee. – William Shakespeare

Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell. – William Shakespeare

Anger is like A full hot horse, who being allowed his way, Self-mettle tires him. – William Shakespeare

Anger’s my meat. I sup upon myself, And so shall starve with feeding. – William Shakespeare

Appetite, a universal wolf. – William Shakespeare

April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. – William Shakespeare

Are there no stones in heaven But what serves for thunder? – William Shakespeare

Are you good men and true? – William Shakespeare

Art made tongue-tied by authority. – William Shakespeare

Art thou base, common and popular? – William Shakespeare

As a decrepit father takes delight To see his active child do deeds of youth, So I, made lame by fortune’s dearest spite, Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth. – William Shakespeare

As a walled town is more worthier than a village, so is the forehead of a married man more honorable than the bare brow of a bachelor. – William Shakespeare

As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown. – William Shakespeare

As chaste as unsunned snow. – William Shakespeare

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport. – William Shakespeare

As for my wife, I would you had her spirit in such another; The third o’ th’ world is yours, which with a snaffle You may pace easy, but not such a wife. – William Shakespeare

As full of spirit as the month of May. – William Shakespeare

As good luck would have it, comes in one Mistress Page, gives intelligence of Ford’s approach, and in her invention, and Ford’s wife’s distraction, they conveyed me into a buck-basket. – William Shakespeare

As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him. – William Shakespeare

As in a theatre, the eyes of men, after a well-graced actor leaves the stage, are idly bent on him that enters next. – William Shakespeare

As love is full of unbefitting strains, All wanton as a child, skipping and vain, Form’d by the eye and therefore, like the eye, Full of strange shapes, of habits and of forms, Varying in subjects as the eye doth roll To every varied object in his glance. – William Shakespeare

As many arrows, loosed several ways, come to one mark…so many a thousand actions, once afoot, end in one purpose. – William Shakespeare

As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words. – William Shakespeare

As this pomp shows to a little oil and root. – William Shakespeare

As true as steel, as plantage to the moon, As sun to day, at turtle to her mate, As iron to adamant, as earth to centre. – William Shakespeare

As you are old and reverend, you should be wise. – William Shakespeare

Ask God for temp’rance. That’s th’ appliance only Which your disease requires. – William Shakespeare

Ask me no reason why I love you; for though Love use Reason for his physician, he admits him not for his counsellor. – William Shakespeare

Assume a virtue, if you have it not. – William Shakespeare

At Christmas, I no more desire a rose – Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth; But like of each thing that in season grows. – William Shakespeare

At little more than kin, and less than kind. – William Shakespeare

Away, and mock the time with fairest show; False face must hide what the false heart doth know. – William Shakespeare

Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away! By this wine, I’ll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps, an you play the saucy cuttle with me. Away, you bottle-ale rascal! you basket-hilt stale juggler, you! – William Shakespeare

Away, you trifler! Love! I love thee not, I care not for thee, Kate: this is no world To play with mammets and to tilt with lips: We must have bloody noses and cracked crowns. – William Shakespeare

Ay me! for aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth. But, either it was different in blood,- Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,- Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it. – William Shakespeare

Ay me! for aught that I ever could read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth. – William Shakespeare

Ay, but to die and go we know not where; To lie in cold obstrution and to rot; This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods or to reside In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice; To be imprison’d in the viewless winds, And blown with restless violence round about The pendant world. – William Shakespeare

Ay, every inch a king. – William Shakespeare

Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand. – William Shakespeare

Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts- O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power So to seduce! – William Shakespeare

Ay; beauty’s princely majesty is such, Confounds the tongue and makes the senses rough. – William Shakespeare

Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow, Ang’ring itself and others. – William Shakespeare

Bait the hook well. This fish will bite. – William Shakespeare

Barnes are blessings. – William Shakespeare

Base is the slave that pays. – William Shakespeare

Be advised; Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot That it do singe yourself: we may outrun, By violent swiftness, that which we run at, And lose by over-running. Know you not, The fire that mounts the liquor til run o’er, In seeming to augment it wastes it? – William Shakespeare

Be as just and gracious unto me, As I am confident and kind to thee. – William Shakespeare

Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man. – William Shakespeare

Be checked for silence, But never taxed for speech. – William Shakespeare

Be collected. No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart There’s no harm done. – William Shakespeare

Be great in act, as you have been in thought. – William Shakespeare

Be just, and fear not. – William Shakespeare

Be just, and fear not. Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s and truth’s. – William Shakespeare

Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are! – William Shakespeare

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

Be merry; you have cause, so have we all, of joy; for our escape is much beyond our loss . . . . then wisely weigh our sorrow with our comfort. – William Shakespeare

Be not afraid; the isle is full of noises. – William Shakespeare

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. – William Shakespeare

Be not thy tongue thy own shame’s orator. – William Shakespeare

Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action. – William Shakespeare

Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go. – William Shakespeare

Be to yourself as you would to your friend. – William Shakespeare

Be wary then; best safety lies in fear. – William Shakespeare

Be wise as thou art cruel, do not press My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain: Lest sorrow lend me words and words express, The manner of my pity-wanting pain… – William Shakespeare

Bear with my weakness. My old brain is troubled. Be not disturbed with my infirmity. – William Shakespeare

Beauty is all very well at first sight; but whoever looks at it when it has been in the house three days? – William Shakespeare

Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good; a shining gloss that fadeth suddenly; a flower that dies when it begins to bud; a doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower, lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour. – William Shakespeare

Beauty itself doth of itself persuade the eyes of men without an orator. – William Shakespeare

Beauty lives with kindness. – William Shakespeare

Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold. – William Shakespeare

Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear. – William Shakespeare

Beauty within itself should not be wasted. – William Shakespeare

Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good;
A shining gloss that vadeth suddenly;
A flower that dies when first it ‘gins to bud;
A brittle that’s broken presently;
A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,
Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour.

And as goods lost are seld or never found,
As vaded gloss no rubbing will refresh,
As flowers dead lie withered on the ground,
As broken glass no cement can redress;
So beauty blemished once, for ever lost,
In spite of physic, painting, pain and cost. – William Shakespeare

O my love, my wife,
Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
Thou art not conquered, beauty’s ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks
And Death’s pale flag is not advancèd there. – William Shakespeare

Because it is a customary cross, As die to love as thoughts, and dreams, and sighs, Wishes, and tears, poor fancy’s followers. – William Shakespeare

Before the curing of a strong disease, Even in the instant of repair and health, The fit is strongest. Evils that take leave, On their departure most of all show evil. – William Shakespeare

Before thee stands this fair Hesperides, With golden fruit, but dangerous to be touched; For death-like dragons here affright thee hard. – William Shakespeare

Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks. – William Shakespeare

Being holiday, the beggar’s shop is shut. – William Shakespeare

Being your slave what should I do but tend, Upon the hours, and times of your desire? I have no precious time at all to spend; Nor services to do till you require. – William Shakespeare

Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan For that deep wound it gives my friend and me; Is’t not enough to torture me alone, But slave to slavery my sweet’st friend must be? … – William Shakespeare

Beshrew the heart that makes my heart to groan. – William Shakespeare

Besides, they are our outward consciences, And preachers to us all, admonishing That we should drew us fairly for our end. – William Shakespeare

Best men oft are moulded out of faults. – William Shakespeare

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit. – William Shakespeare

Better be with the dead, Whom we to gain our peace, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy. – William Shakespeare

Better conquest never canst thou make than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts against giddy, loose suggestions. – William Shakespeare

Better three hours too soon than a minute too late. – William Shakespeare

Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma or a hideous dream. – William Shakespeare

Beware Of entrance to a quarrel but being in, Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express’d in fancy rich, not gaudy For the apparel oft proclaims the man. – William Shakespeare

Beware Of entrance to a quarrel. – William Shakespeare

Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man. – William Shakespeare

Beware the ides of March. – William Shakespeare

Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear. – William Shakespeare

Bid the dishonest man mend himself; if he mend, he is no longer dishonest. – William Shakespeare

Bless her when she is riggish. – William Shakespeare

Blessings of your heart, you brew good ale. – William Shakespeare

Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return to plague the inventor. – William Shakespeare

Blow, blow, thou winter wind Thou art not so unkind, As man’s ingratitude. – William Shakespeare

Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks. Rage! Blow! – William Shakespeare

Boldness be my friend. – William Shakespeare

Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud. – William Shakespeare

Boundless intemperance In nature is a tyranny. It hath been Th’ untimely emptying of the happy throne And fall of many kings. – William Shakespeare

Bounty, being free itself, thinks all others so. – William Shakespeare

Bow, stubborn knees, and, heart with strings of steel, Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe. All many be well. – William Shakespeare

Brevity is the soul of wit. – William Shakespeare

Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth;
And ere a man can say–Behold!
The jaws of darkness devour it up. – William Shakespeare

But as the unthought-on accident is guilty To what we wildly do, so we profess Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies Of every wind that blows. – William Shakespeare

But clay and clay differs in dignity, Whose dust is both alike. – William Shakespeare

But earthlier happy is the rose distill’d Than that which withering on the virgin thorn Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness. – William Shakespeare

But fish not with this melancholy bait For this fool gudgeon, this opinion. – William Shakespeare

But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed. – William Shakespeare

But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again. – William Shakespeare

But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve For daws to peck at; I am not what I am. – William Shakespeare

But indeed an old religious uncle of mine taught me to speak, who was in his youth an inland man; one that knew courtship too well, for there he fell in love. I have heard him read many lectures against it; and I thank God I am not a woman, to be touched with so many giddy offenses as he hath generally taxed their whole sex withal. – William Shakespeare

But jealous souls will not be answer’d so;
They are not ever jealous for the cause,
But jealous for they are jealous. – William Shakespeare

But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer, Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep In the affliction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly. – William Shakespeare

But love is blind, and lovers cannot see What petty follies they themselves commit. – William Shakespeare

But love that comes too late, Like a remorseful pardon slowly carried, To the great sender turns a sour offense, Crying, ‘That’s good that’s gone. – William Shakespeare

But love, first learned in a lady’s eyes, Lives not alone immured in the brain; But, with the motion of all elements, Courses as swift as thought in every power, And gives to every power a double power, Above their functions and their offices. – William Shakespeare

But men are men; the best sometimes forget. – William Shakespeare

But most it is presumption in us when the help of heaven we count the act of men. – William Shakespeare

But no perfection is so absolute, That some impurity doth not pollute. – William Shakespeare

But now behold, In the quick forge and working-house of thought, How London doth pour out her citizens! – William Shakespeare

But now I am cabin’d, cribb’d, confined, bound in To saucy doubts and fears. – William Shakespeare

But O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes. – William Shakespeare

But say, my lord, it were not regist’red, Methinks the truth should live from age to age, As ’twere retailed to all posterity, Even to the general all-ending day. – William Shakespeare

But screw your courage to the sticking place and we’ll not fail. – William Shakespeare

But since the affairs of men rests still incertain, Let’s reason with the worst that may befall. – William Shakespeare

But then I sigh, and with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil.
And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With odd old ends stolen forth of holy writ,
And seem I a saint, when most
I play the Devil. – William Shakespeare

But there is no such man; for, brother, men Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it, Their counsel turns to passion, which before Would give preceptial medicine to rage, Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, Charm ache with air and agony with words. – William Shakespeare

But thought’s the slave of life, and life time’s fool; And time, that takes survey of all the world,Must have a stop. – William Shakespeare

But thy eternal summer shall not fade. – William Shakespeare

But to my mind, though I am native here And to the manner born, it is a custom More honoured in the breach than the observance. – William Shakespeare

But virtue never will be mov’d, Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven. – William Shakespeare

But we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts; whereof I take this that you call love to bea sect or scion…. It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will. – William Shakespeare

But what’s so blessed-fair that fears no blot? Thou mayst be false, and yet I know it not. – William Shakespeare

But when I came, alas, to wive, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, By swaggering could I never thrive, For the rain it raineth every day. – William Shakespeare

But when the fox hath once got in his nose, He’ll soon find means to make the body follow. – William Shakespeare

But wherefore could not I pronounce ‘Amen’? I had most need of blessing, and ‘Amen’ Stuck in my throat. – William Shakespeare

But yesterday the word of Caesar might Have stood against the world; now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence. – William Shakespeare

But yet, I say, if imputation and strong circumstances, which lead directly to the door of truth, will give you satisfaction, you may have it. – William Shakespeare

But, for my own part, it was Greek to me. – William Shakespeare

But, indeed, words are very rascals, since bonds [vows] disgraced them.” Viola: “Thy reason, man?” Feste: “Troth [Truthfully], sir, I can yield you none without words, and words are grown so false, I am loathe to prove reason with them. – William Shakespeare

But, soft what light through yonder window breaks It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. – William Shakespeare

By a divine instinct, men’s minds mistrust ensuing danger; as, by proof, we see the waters swell before a boisterous storm. – William Shakespeare

By being seldom seen, I could not stir But like a comet I was wondered at. – William Shakespeare

By heaven, I love thee better than myself;
For I come hither arm’d against myself:
Stay not, be gone; live, and hereafter say,
A madman’s mercy bade thee run away. – William Shakespeare

By Heaven, my soul is purg’d from grudging hate; And with my hand I seal my true heart’s love. – William Shakespeare

By how much unexpected, by so much We must awake endeavour for defence; For courage mounteth with occasion. – William Shakespeare

By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; It yearns me not if me my garments wear; Such outward things dwell not in my desires: But if it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul alive. – William Shakespeare

By that sin fell the angels. – William Shakespeare

By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. Open, locks, Whoever knocks. – William Shakespeare

Call it not love, for Love to heaven is fled,
Since sweating Lust on earth usurp’d his name. – William Shakespeare

Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me. – William Shakespeare

Can it be That modesty may more betray our sense Than woman’s lightness? Having waste ground enough, Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary And pitch our evils there? – William Shakespeare

Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth Finds the down pillow hard. – William Shakespeare

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, raze out the written troubles of the brain, and with some sweet oblivious antidote cleanse the fraught bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart? – William Shakespeare

Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose to the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude, and in the calmest and most stillest night, with all appliances and means to boot, deny it to a king? – William Shakespeare

Cease to lament for that thou canst not help; and study help for that which thou lamentest. – William Shakespeare

Celebrity is never more admired than by the negligent. – William Shakespeare

Chain me with roaring bears; Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house, O’er-covered quite with dead men’s rattling bones, With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls; Or bid me go into a new-made grave, And hide me with a dead man in his shroud; Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble; And I will do it without Fear or Doubt, To live an unstain’d Wife of my sweet Love. – William Shakespeare

Charity itself fulfills the law. And who can sever love from charity? – William Shakespeare

Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong. – William Shakespeare

Coal-black is better than another hue In that it scorns to bear another hue; For all the water in the ocean Can never turn the swan’s black legs to white, Although she lave them hourly in the flood. – William Shakespeare

Cold indeed, and labor lost: Then farewell heat, and welcome frost! – William Shakespeare

Come my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam’s profession. – William Shakespeare

Come not within the measure of my wrath. – William Shakespeare

Come now, what masques, what dances shall we have To wear away this long age of three hours Between our after-supper and bedtime? – William Shakespeare

Come the three corners of the world in arms, and we shall shock them. – William Shakespeare

Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day. – William Shakespeare

Come what may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day. – William Shakespeare

Come what sorrow can, It cannot countervail the exchange of joy, That one short minute gives me in her sight. – William Shakespeare

Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black. – William Shakespeare

Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used; exclaim no more against it. – William Shakespeare

Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness. – William Shakespeare

Come, give us a taste of your quality. – William Shakespeare

Come, Let’s have one other gaudy night. Call to me All my sad captains. Fill our bowls once more. Let’s mock the midnight bell. – William Shakespeare

Come, my coach! Good-night, ladies; good-night, sweet ladies; good-night, good-night. – William Shakespeare

Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale. Light thickens, and the crow Makes wing to th’ rooky wood. Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, While night’s black agents to their prey do rouse. – William Shakespeare

Come, swear it, damn thyself, lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves should fear to seize thee; therefore be double-damned, swear,–thou art honest. – William Shakespeare

Comets importing change of times and states, Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky And with them scourge the bad revolting stars. – William Shakespeare

Commit the oldest sins the newest kind of ways. – William Shakespeare

Conceit in weakest bodies works the strongest. – William Shakespeare

Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, brags of his substance: they are but beggars who can count their worth. – William Shakespeare

Condemn the fault and not the actor of it? – William Shakespeare

Confess yourself to heaven, Repent what’s past, avoid what is to come, And do not spread the compost on the weeds To make them ranker. – William Shakespeare

Conscience doth make cowards of us all. – William Shakespeare

Conscience is a blushing, shamefaced spirit than mutinies in a man’s bosom; it fills one full of obstacles. – William Shakespeare

Conscience is a thousand swords. – William Shakespeare

Conscience is but a word that cowards use, Devised at first to keep the strong in awe. – William Shakespeare

Contention, like a horse, Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose, And bears down all before him. – William Shakespeare

Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood. – William Shakespeare

Corruption wins not more than honesty. Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, To silence envious tongues. – William Shakespeare

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man. – William Shakespeare

Could I come near your beauty with my nails, I’d set my ten commandments in your face. – William Shakespeare

Covering discretion with a coat of folly. – William Shakespeare

Cowards die many times before their deaths The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come. – William Shakespeare

Cowards die many times; a brave man dies but once. – William Shakespeare

Crabbed age and youth cannot live together; Youth is full of pleasure, age is full of care; Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather; Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare. Youth is full sport, age’s breath is short; Youth is nimble, age is lame; Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold; Youth is wild, age is tame. Age, I do abhor thee; youth, I do adore thee. – William Shakespeare

Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home, And so am come abroad to see the world. – William Shakespeare

Cruel to be kind. – William Shakespeare

Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war. – William Shakespeare

Cursed be he that moves my bones. – William Shakespeare

Cursed be the hand that made these fatal holes. – William Shakespeare

Daffodils that come before the swallow dares, and takes the winds of March with beauty. – William Shakespeare

Days of absence, sad and dreary, Clothed in sorrow’s dark array, Days of absence, I am weary; She I love is far away. – William Shakespeare

Death is a fearful thing. – William Shakespeare

Death lies on her, like an untimely frost Upon the sweetest flower of all the field. – William Shakespeare

Death where is thy sting? Love, where is thy glory? – William Shakespeare

Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all, all shall die. – William Shakespeare

Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends. – William Shakespeare

Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary. – William Shakespeare

Desire of having is the sin of covetousness. – William Shakespeare

Determine on some course more than a wild exposure to each chance. – William Shakespeare

Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light. – William Shakespeare

Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, For I never saw true beauty till this night. – William Shakespeare

Direct not him whose way himself will choose; ‘Tis breath not lack’st, and that breath wilt thou lose. – William Shakespeare

Discomfort guides my tongue And bids me speak of nothing but despair. – William Shakespeare

Diseased Nature oftentimes breaks forth In strange eruptions. – William Shakespeare

Dispute not with her: she is lunatic. – William Shakespeare

Divers philosophers hold that the lips is parcel of the mouth. – William Shakespeare

Do all men kill the things they do not love? – William Shakespeare

Do but see his vice;‘
Tis to his virtues a just equinox,
The one as long as the other. – William Shakespeare

Do not banish reason for inequality; but let your reason serve to make the truth appear where it seems hid, and hide the false seems true. – William Shakespeare

Do not be like the cat who wanted a fish but was afraid to get his paws wet. – William Shakespeare

Do not cast away an honest man for a villain’s accusation. – William Shakespeare

Do not give dalliance too much rein; the strongest oaths are straw to the fire in the blood. – William Shakespeare

Do not plunge thyself too far in anger. – William Shakespeare

Do not speak like a death’s-head, do not bid me remember mine end. – William Shakespeare

Do not spread the compost on the weeds. – William Shakespeare

Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel? Polonius: By the mass, and ‘tis like a camel, indeed. Hamlet: Methinks it is like a weasel. Polonius: It is backed like a weasel. Hamlet: Or like a whale? Polonius: Very like a whale. – William Shakespeare

Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age? – William Shakespeare

Don’t trust the person who has broken faith once. – William Shakespeare

Dost thou love hawking? Thou hast hawks will soar Above the morning lark. – William Shakespeare

Dost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale? – William Shakespeare

Double double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble. – William Shakespeare

Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love. – William Shakespeare

Doubting things go ill often hurts more Than to be sure they do; for certainties Either are past remedies, or, timely knowing, The remedy then born. – William Shakespeare

Downy sleep, death’s counterfeit. – William Shakespeare

Dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. And I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow. – William Shakespeare

Dumb jewels often, in their silent kind, more than quick words, do move a woman’s mind. – William Shakespeare

Each present joy or sorrow seems the chief. – William Shakespeare

Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows. – William Shakespeare

Either our history shall with full mouth Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave, Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth, Not worshipped with a waxen epitaph. – William Shakespeare

England is safe, if true within itself. – William Shakespeare

England, bound in with the triumphant sea, Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege Of watery Neptune. – William Shakespeare

Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight, Past reason hunted, and no sooner had Past reason hated. – William Shakespeare

Equality of two domestic powers Breeds scrupulous faction. – William Shakespeare

Ere I could make thee open thy white hand, and clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter, I am your’s for ever! – William Shakespeare

Et tu Brute! (You too, Brutus!) – William Shakespeare

Eternity was in our lips and eyes, Bliss in our brows’ bent; none our parts so poor But was a race of heaven. – William Shakespeare

Even through the hollow eyes of death I spy life peering. – William Shakespeare

Every good servant does not all commands. – William Shakespeare

Every great drama has its foreshadow. – William Shakespeare

Every inordinate cup is unbless’d, and the ingredient is a devil. – William Shakespeare

Every man has a bag hanging before him, in which he puts his neighbour’s faults, and another behind him in which he stows his own. – William Shakespeare

Every man has business and desire, Such as it is. – William Shakespeare

Every man has his fault, and honesty is his. – William Shakespeare

Every offense is not a hate at first. – William Shakespeare

Every one can master a grief but he that has it. – William Shakespeare

Every subject’s duty is the king’s; but every subject’s soul is his own. – William Shakespeare

Every why hath a wherefore. – William Shakespeare

Everyone ought to bear patiently the results of his own conduct. – William Shakespeare

Examine well your blood. – William Shakespeare

Exceeds man’s might: that dwells with the gods above. – William Shakespeare

Excellent wretch Perdition catch my soul, But I do love thee and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again. – William Shakespeare

Expectation is the root of all heartache. – William Shakespeare

Experience teacheth us That resolution ‘s a sole help at need: And this, my lord, our honour teacheth us, That we be bold in every enterprise: Then since there is no way, but fight or die, Be resolute, my lord, for victory. – William Shakespeare

Extreme fear can neither fight nor fly. – William Shakespeare

Extremity is the trier of spirits. – William Shakespeare

Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. – William Shakespeare

Faint heart never won fair maid. – William Shakespeare

Fair ladies, masked, are roses in their bud; Dismasked, the damask sweet commixture shown, Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown. – William Shakespeare

Fairies use flowers for their charactery. – William Shakespeare

Fairies, black, grey, green, and white, You moonshine revellers, and shades of night, You orphan heirs of fixed destiny, Attend your office and your quality. – William Shakespeare

Faith, I have been a truant in the law And never yet could frame my will to it, And therefore frame the law unto my will. – William Shakespeare

Faith, I ran when I saw others run. – William Shakespeare

Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne’er loved them. – William Shakespeare

Fame lulls the fever of the soul, and makes Us feel that we have grasp’d an immortality. – William Shakespeare

Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars That make ambition virtue! O, farewell! Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump, The spirit-stirring drum, th’ ear-piercing fife, The royal banner, and all quality, Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war! – William Shakespeare

Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content! Farewell the plumed troops, and the big wars That make ambition virtue. – William Shakespeare

Farewell! a long farewell to all my greatness! – William Shakespeare

Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing. – William Shakespeare

Farewell, fair cruelty. – William Shakespeare

Farewell, good Salisbury, and good luck go with thee! – William Shakespeare

Farewell, Monsieur Traveller: look you lisp and wear strange suits, disable all the benefits of your own country. – William Shakespeare

Farewell, my sister, fare thee well. The elements be kind to thee, and make Thy spirits all of comfort: fare thee well. – William Shakespeare

Fashion wears out more clothes than the man. – William Shakespeare

Faster than spring-time showers comes thought on thought. – William Shakespeare

Fat paunches have lean pates, and dainty bits Make rich the ribs, but backrout quite the wits. – William Shakespeare

Faults that are rich are fair. – William Shakespeare

Fear and niceness, the handmaids of all women, or more truly, woman its pretty self. – William Shakespeare

Fear no more the heat o’ th’ sun Nor the furious winters’ rages; Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages. Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. – William Shakespeare

Fearless minds climb soonest into crowns. – William Shakespeare

Few love to hear the sins they love to act. – William Shakespeare

Fie, fie upon her! There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip, Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out At every joint and motive of her body. – William Shakespeare

Fie, fie, how frantically I square my talk! – William Shakespeare

Fight to the last gasp. – William Shakespeare

Fight valiantly to-day; and yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it, for thou art framed of the firm truth of valor. – William Shakespeare

Fight, gentlemen of England! fight, bold yeomen! Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head! Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood; Amaze the welkin with your broken staves! – William Shakespeare

Fill all thy bones with aches. – William Shakespeare

Fire that’s closest kept burns most of all. – William Shakespeare

Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones. – William Shakespeare

Fit for the mountains and the barbarous caves, where manners ne’er were preached. – William Shakespeare

Flower of this purple dye, Hit with Cupid’s archery, Sink in apple of his eye. – William Shakespeare

Foolery, Sir, does walk about the orb like the sun; it shines everywhere. – William Shakespeare

Fools are as like husbands as pilchards are to herrings, the husband’s the bigger. – William Shakespeare

Fools are not mad folks. – William Shakespeare

For ’tis the sport to have the engineer Hoist with his own petar; and’t shall go hard But I will delve one yard below their mines And blow them at the moon. – William Shakespeare

For ’tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard… – William Shakespeare

For a noble heart, the most precious gift becomes poor, when the giver stops loving.  – William Shakespeare

For aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth. – William Shakespeare

For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all, all honourable men. – William Shakespeare

For by his face straight shall you know his heart. – William Shakespeare

For conspiracy, I know not how it tastes, though it be dished For me to try how. – William Shakespeare

For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground, and tell sad stories of the death of kings… All murdered; for within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king, keeps Death his court… and with a little pin bores through his castle wall, and farewell king! – William Shakespeare

For grief is crowned with consolation. – William Shakespeare

For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother tomorrow. – William Shakespeare

For he was likely, had he been put on, to have proved most royally. – William Shakespeare

For honesty coupled to beauty, is to have honey a sauce to sugar. – William Shakespeare

For I am nothing if not critical. – William Shakespeare

For I can raise no money by vile means. By heaven, I had rather coin my heart, And drop my blood for drachmas. – William Shakespeare

For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, action nor utterance, nor the power of speech, to stir men’s blood. I only speak right on. I tell you that which you yourselves do know. – William Shakespeare

For in my youth I never did apply Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood. – William Shakespeare

For in the fatness of these pursy times Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg. – William Shakespeare

For men have marble, women waxen, minds,
And therefore are they form’d as marble will;
The weak oppress’d, the impression of strange kinds
Is form’d in them by force, by fraud, or skill:
Then call them not the authors of their ill,
No more than wax shall be accounted evil
Wherein is stamp’d the semblance of a devil. – William Shakespeare

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ. – William Shakespeare

For my own part, I shall be glad to learn of noble men. – William Shakespeare

For my part, if a lie may do thee grace, I’ll gild it with the happiest terms I have. – William Shakespeare

For my part, I may speak it to my shame, I have a truant been to chivalry; And so I hear he doth account me too. – William Shakespeare

For night’s swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger;
At whose approach ghosts, wandering here and there,
Troop home to churchyards. – William Shakespeare

For nothing can seem foul to those that win.

For now I stand as one upon a rock environed with a wilderness of sea, who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave, expecting ever when some envious surge will in his brinish bowels swallow him.  – William Shakespeare

For oaths are straws, men’s faiths are wafer-cakes, And hold-fast is the only dog. – William Shakespeare

For some must watch, while some must sleep; thus runs the world away. – William Shakespeare

For the poor wren (The most diminutive of birds) will fight, Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. – William Shakespeare

For the success, Although particular, shall give a scantling Of good or bad unto the general; And in such indexes, although small pricks To their subsequent volumes, there is seen The baby figure of the giant mass Of things to come at large. – William Shakespeare

For there was never yet philosopher
That could endure the toothache patiently. – William Shakespeare

For there’s no motion That tends to vice in man, but I affirm It is the woman’s part. – William Shakespeare

For they are yet ear-kissing arguments. – William Shakespeare

For thou hast given me in this beauteous face A world of earthly blessings to my soul, If sympathy of love unite our thoughts. – William Shakespeare

For though the camomile, the more it is trodden on the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted, the sooner it wears. – William Shakespeare

For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings. – William Shakespeare

For to define true madness, What is’t but to be nothing else but mad? – William Shakespeare

For truth hath better deeds than words to grace it. – William Shakespeare

For we which now behold these present days have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise. – William Shakespeare

For what I will, I will, and there an end. – William Shakespeare

For what is wedlock forced but a hell, An age of discord and continual strife? Whereas the contrary bringeth bliss, And is a pattern of celestial peace. – William Shakespeare

For you and I are past our dancing days. – William Shakespeare

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. – William Shakespeare

Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. – William Shakespeare

Fore God, you have here a goodly dwelling and a rich. – William Shakespeare

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered. – William Shakespeare

Fortune reigns in gifts of the world. – William Shakespeare

Fortune, good night; smile once more, turn thy wheel. – William Shakespeare

Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes. – William Shakespeare

Foul fiend of France and hag of all despite, Encompassed with thy lustful paramours, Becomes it thee to taunt his valiant age And twit with cowardice a man half dead?

Foul whisp’rings are abroad. – William Shakespeare

Frailty, thy name is woman! – William Shakespeare

France is a dog-hole, and it no more merits the tread of a man’s foot. – William Shakespeare

Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood, garnish’d and deck’d in modest compliment, not working with the eye without the ear, and but in purged judgement trusting neither Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem. – William Shakespeare

Friendly counsel cuts off many foes. – William Shakespeare

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them The good is oft interred with their bones. – William Shakespeare

Friendship is constant in all other things Save in the office and affairs of love Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues Let every eye negotiate for itself And trust no agent. – William Shakespeare

Friendship is constant in all other things, Save in the office and affairs of love. – William Shakespeare

Friendship is full of dregs. – William Shakespeare

From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night, The hum of either army stilly sounds, That the fixed sentinels almost receive The secret whispers of each other’s watch. Fire answers fire, and through their play flames Each battle sees the other’s umbered face. Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs Piercing the night’s dull ear; and from the tents The armorers accomplishing the knights, With busy hammers closing rivets up, Give dreadful note of preparation. – William Shakespeare

From this day forward until the end of the world…we in it shall be remembered…we band of brothers. – William Shakespeare

From this time forth My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! – William Shakespeare

From you have I been absent in the spring, When proud pied April, dressed in all his trim, Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing. – William Shakespeare

Fruits that blossom first will first be ripe. – William Shakespeare

Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: Ding-dong Hark! now I hear them,—Ding-dong, bell. – William Shakespeare

Full many a lady I have eyed with best regard, and many a time Th’ harmony of their tongues hath into bondage Brought my too diligent ear; for several virtues Have I liked several women; never any With so full soul but some defect in her Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed, And put it to the foil. – William Shakespeare

Full of wise saws and modern instances. – William Shakespeare

Full oft we see Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly. – William Shakespeare

Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman. – William Shakespeare

Gently to hear, kindly to judge. – William Shakespeare

Get thee a good husband, and use him as he uses thee. – William Shakespeare

Get thee glass eyes, and like a scurvy politician, seem to see the things thou dost not. – William Shakespeare

Give every man your ear, but few thy voice. Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.  – William Shakespeare [Hamlet]

Give me a bowl of wine. I have not that alacrity of spirit Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have. – William Shakespeare

Give me a staff of honor for mine age, But not a sceptre to control the world. – William Shakespeare

Give me mine angle, we’ll to th’ river: there, My music playing far off, I will betray Tawny-finned fishes. My bended hook shall pierce Their slimy jaws; and as I draw them up, I’ll think them every one an Antony, And say, ‘Ah, ha! are caught!’ – William Shakespeare

Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have Immortal longings in me. – William Shakespeare

Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die. Take him, and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine, That all the world will be in love with night, And pay no worship to the garish sun. – William Shakespeare

Give me some music; music, moody food Of us that trade in love.  – William Shakespeare

Give me that man
That is not passion’s slave. – William Shakespeare

Give me to drink mandragora.  – William Shakespeare

Give obedience where ’tis truly owed. – William Shakespeare

Give them great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will eat like wolves and fight like devils. – William Shakespeare

Give thy thoughts no tongue. – William Shakespeare

Glory grows guilty of detested crimes. – William Shakespeare

Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, Till by broad spreading it disperses to naught. – William Shakespeare

Gloucester, we have done deeds of charity, made peace of enmity, fair love of hate, between these swelling wrong-incensed peers. – William Shakespeare

Gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder, I gain’d my freedom. – William Shakespeare

Go hang yourself, you naughty mocking uncle! – William Shakespeare

Go to you bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know. – William Shakespeare

Go, bid the soldiers shoot. – William Shakespeare

God befriend us, as our cause is just! – William Shakespeare

God bless thee; and put meekness in thy breast, Love, charity, obedience, and true duty! – William Shakespeare

God bless thee; and put meekness in thy mind, love, charity, obedience, and true duty! – William Shakespeare

God defend me from that Welsh fairy, Lest he transform me to a piece of cheese! – William Shakespeare

God defend the right. – William Shakespeare

God grant us patience! – William Shakespeare

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another. – William Shakespeare

God is our fortress, in whose conquering name Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks. – William Shakespeare

God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man. – William Shakespeare

God mark thee to His grace! Thou was the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed. And might I live to see thee married once, I have my wish. – William Shakespeare

God, the best maker of all marriages, Combine your hearts into one. – William Shakespeare

Gold–what can it not do, and undo? – William Shakespeare

Gold? Yellow, glittering, precious gold? No gods,
This yellow slave
Will knit and break religions, bless th’ accursed,
Make the hoar leprosy adored, place thieves,
And give them title, knee and approbation
With senators on the bench. – William Shakespeare

Good fortune then! To make me blest or cursed’st among men. – William Shakespeare

Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare, To digg the dust encloased heare! Blest be the man that spares thes stones, And curst be he that moves my bones. – William Shakespeare

Good God, the souls of all my tribe defend From jealousy! – William Shakespeare

Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off … Do not for ever with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust. – William Shakespeare

Good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow. – William Shakespeare

Good luck lies in odd numbers. – William Shakespeare

Good morrow, ’tis Saint Valentine’s Day, All in the morn betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your valentine. – William Shakespeare

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls Who steals my purse steals trash ’tis something, nothing ‘Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him And makes me poor indeed. – William Shakespeare

Good night, good night parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow. – William Shakespeare

Good old grandsire … we shall be joyful of thy company. – William Shakespeare

Good reasons must of force give place to better. – William Shakespeare

Good things should be praised. – William Shakespeare

Good wine needs no bush. – William Shakespeare

Good words are better than bad strokes. – William Shakespeare

Goodnight! Goodnight! Parting is such sweet sorrow That I shall say goodnight ’til it be morrow. – William Shakespeare

Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle; I am no traitor’s uncle, and that word “grace” In an ungracious mouth is but profane. – William Shakespeare

Great floods have flown
From simple sources, and great seas have dried
When miracles have by the greatest been denied. – William Shakespeare

Great griefs medicine the less. – William Shakespeare

Great men may jest with saints; ’tis wit in them; But, in the less foul profanation. – William Shakespeare

Great men should drink with harness on their throats. – William Shakespeare

Greatness knows itself. – William Shakespeare

Greatness, once fallen out with fortune, must fall out with men too. – William Shakespeare

Grief fills the room up of my absent child, lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words. – William Shakespeare

Grief hath two tongues; and never woman yet Could rule them both without ten women’s wit. – William Shakespeare

Grief makes one hour ten. – William Shakespeare

Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front; And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute. – William Shakespeare

Guiltiness will speak, though tongues were out of use. – William Shakespeare

Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, he would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies. – William Shakespeare

Hadst thou no poison mixed, no sharp-ground knife, No sudden mean of death, though ne’er so mean, But ‘banished’ to kill me–‘banished’? O friar, the damned use that word in hell; Howling attends it! How hast thou the heart, Being a divine, a ghostly confessor, A sin-absolver, and my friend professed, To mangle me with that word ‘banished’? – William Shakespeare

Hamlet Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel Polonius By the mass, and ’tis like a camel, indeed. Hamlet Methinks it is like a weasel. Polonius It is backed like a weasel. Hamlet Or like a whale Polonius Very like a whale. – William Shakespeare

Hang those that talk of fear. – William Shakespeare

Hanging and wiving goes by destiny. – William Shakespeare

Haply a woman’s voice may do some good When articles too nicely urged be stood on. – William Shakespeare

Happy is your Grace, That can translate the stubbornness of fortune20 Into so quiet and so sweet a style. I wouldn’t exchange it for anything. Your Grace, you are lucky to be able to translate your misfortune into such a quiet, happy lifestyle. Come, shall we go and kill us venison? – William Shakespeare

Happy thou art not; for what thou hast not, still thou striv’est to get; and what thou hast, forget’est. – William Shakespeare

Hardness ever of hardness is mother. – William Shakespeare

Haste is needful in a desperate case. – William Shakespeare

Hasty marriage seldom proveth well. – William Shakespeare

Hate pollutes the mind. – William Shakespeare

Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel? Why, now let me die, for I have lived long enough. – William Shakespeare

Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest. – William Shakespeare

Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. – William Shakespeare

Have you not a moist eye, a dry hand, a yellow cheek, a white beard, a decreasing leg, an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken, your wind short, your chin double, your wit single, and every part about you blasted with antiquity? – William Shakespeare

Have you not heard it said full oft, A woman’s nay doth stand for naught? – William Shakespeare

Have you not love enough to bear with me, when that rash humor which my mother gave me makes me forgetful. – William Shakespeare

Having my freedom, boast of nothing else. – William Shakespeare

Having nothing, nothing can he lose. – William Shakespeare

He capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks holiday, he smells April and May. – William Shakespeare

He does it with a better grace, but I do it more natural. – William Shakespeare

He doth nothing but talk of his horses. – William Shakespeare

He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. – William Shakespeare

He hath eaten me out of house and home. – William Shakespeare

He hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts. – William Shakespeare

He hath not fed of the dainties that are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink. – William Shakespeare

He is evil by his very nature.– William Shakespeare

He is half of a blessed man. Left to be finished by such as she; and she a fair divided excellence, whose fullness of perfection lies in him. – William Shakespeare

He is not great who is not greatly good.– William Shakespeare

He is not worthy of the honey-comb, that shuns the hives because the bees have stings. – William Shakespeare

He is the most wretched of men who has never felt adversity. – William Shakespeare

He is well paid that is well satisfied. – William Shakespeare

He is white-livered and red-faced. – William Shakespeare

He is winding the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike. – William Shakespeare

He lives in fame that died in virtue’s cause. – William Shakespeare

He makes a July’s day short as December. – William Shakespeare

He must needs go that the devil drives. – William Shakespeare

He receives comfort like cold porridge. – William Shakespeare

He says, he loves my daughter; I think so too; for never gaz’d the moon Upon the water, as he’ll stand and read, As ’twere, my daughter’s eyes: and, to be plain, I think, there is not half a kiss to choose, Who loves another best. – William Shakespeare

He that commends me to mine own content Commends me to the thing I cannot get. – William Shakespeare

He that dies pays all his debts. – William Shakespeare

He that dies this year is quit for the next. – William Shakespeare

He that doth the ravens feed. Yea, providently caters for the sparrow. Be comfort to my age! – William Shakespeare

He that filches from me my good name robs me of that which enriches him and makes me poor indeed. – William Shakespeare

He that has a house to put’s head in has a good head-piece. – William Shakespeare

He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man. He that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him. – William Shakespeare

He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.

He that is proud eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise. – William Shakespeare

He that is robb’d, not wanting what is stolen, Let him not know ‘t, and he’s not robb’d at all. – William Shakespeare

He that is thy friend indeed, He will help thee in thy need: If thou sorrow, he will weep; If thou wake, he cannot sleep: Thus of every grief in heart He with thee does bear a part. These are certain signs to know Faithful friend from flattering foe. – William Shakespeare

He that is thy friend indeed, he will help you in your need. – William Shakespeare

He that is truly dedicated to war hath no self-love. – William Shakespeare

He that is well paid is well satisfied. – William Shakespeare

He that keeps not crust nor crum Weary of all, shall want some. – William Shakespeare

He that loves to be flattered is worthy o’ the flattered. – William Shakespeare

He that sleeps feels not the tooth-ache. – William Shakespeare

He that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding. Have I not tarried? Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting. Have I not tarried? Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening. Still have I tarried. Ay, to the leavening; but here’s yet in the word ‘hereafter’ the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking; nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips. – William Shakespeare

He took the bride about the neck and kissed her lips with such a clamorous smack that at the parting all the church did echo. – William Shakespeare

He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit. – William Shakespeare

He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again. – William Shakespeare

He was met even now As mad as the vex’d sea; singing aloud; Crown’d with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds, With bur-docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow In our sustaining corn. – William Shakespeare

He was my friend, faithful, and just to me, but Brutus says, he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, whose ransoms did the general coffers fill. Did this in Caesar seem ambitious. When the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept. Ambition should me made of sterner stuff, yet Brutus says, he was ambitious and Brutus is an honorable man. – William Shakespeare

He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat. – William Shakespeare

He wears the rose Of youth upon him. – William Shakespeare

He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him if stronger, spare thyself. – William Shakespeare

He will give the devil his due. – William Shakespeare

Headstrong liberty is lashed with woe. – William Shakespeare

Hear me profess sincerely: had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike, and none less dear than thine and my good Marcius, I had rather have eleven die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action. – William Shakespeare

Hear the meaning within the word. – William Shakespeare

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself. – William Shakespeare

Heaven – the treasury of everlasting life. – William Shakespeare

Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell. – William Shakespeare

Heaven would that she these gifts should have, and I to live and die her slave.  – William Shakespeare

Hell is empty and all the devils are here. – William Shakespeare

Help me, Cassius, or I sink! – William Shakespeare

Her beauty makesThis vault a feasting presence full of light.

Her infinite variety. Other women cloy. – William Shakespeare

Her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. – William Shakespeare

Her virtues, graced with external gifts, Do breed love’s settled passions in my heart; And like as rigour of tempestuous gusts Provokes the mightiest hulk against the tide, So am I driven by breath of her renown Either to suffer shipwreck or arrive Where I may have fruition of her love. – William Shakespeare

Her voice was ever soft, Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman. – William Shakespeare

Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice Hath often stilled my brawling discontent. – William Shakespeare

Here comes a pair of very strange beasts, which in all tongues are called fools. – William Shakespeare

Here comes Monsieur le Beau
With his mouth full of news,
Which he will put on us, as pigeons feed their young.
Then shall we be news-crammed. – William Shakespeare

Here feel we but the penalty of Adam, The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind, Which, when it bites and blows upon my body, Even till I shrink with cold, I smile. – William Shakespeare

Here I and sorrows sit; Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it. – William Shakespeare

Here is a rural fellow that will not be denied your Highness’ presence: he brings you figs. – William Shakespeare

Here was a Caesar! When comes such another? – William Shakespeare

Here’s flowers for you; Hot lavender, mints, savoury, marjoram; The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ the sun And with him rises weeping: these are flowers Of middle summer, and I think they are given To men of middle age. – William Shakespeare

Here’s that which is too weak to be a sinner, honest water, which ne’er left man i’ the mire. – William Shakespeare

Hereafter, in a better world than this, I shall desire more love and knowledge of you. – William Shakespeare

His forward voice now is to speak well of his friend. His backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract. – William Shakespeare

His life was gentle, and the elements So mix’d in him that Nature might stand up, And say to all the world, This was a man! – William Shakespeare

His nature is too noble for the world:
He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
Or Jove for’s power to thunder. – William Shakespeare

His neigh is like the bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage. He is indeed a horse. – William Shakespeare

His steeds to water at those springs On chaliced flowers that lies; And winking Mary-buds begin To ope their golden eyes: With every thing that pretty is, My lady sweet, arise. – William Shakespeare

His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles;
His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate;
His tears pure messengers sent from his heart;
His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth. – William Shakespeare

His worst fault is, he’s given to prayer; he is something peevish that way. – William Shakespeare

Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits. – William Shakespeare

Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief. – William Shakespeare

Honesty is the best policy. If I lose mine honor, I lose myself. – William Shakespeare

Honor’s thought Reigns solely in the breast of every man. – William Shakespeare

Honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? How then? Can honour set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honour? A word. – William Shakespeare

Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram; The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ the sun, and with him rise weeping. – William Shakespeare

How easy it is for the proper-false in woman’s waxen hearts to set their forms! – William Shakespeare

How every fool can play upon a word! I think the best grace of wit will shortly turn into silence; and discourse grow commendable in none only but parrots. – William Shakespeare

How every fool can play upon the word!– William Shakespeare

How excellent it is to have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous to use like a giant. – William Shakespeare

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world. – William Shakespeare

How goes it now, sir? This news which is called true is so like an old tale, that the verity of it is in strong suspicion. – William Shakespeare

How hard it is for women to keep counsel! – William Shakespeare

How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature! – William Shakespeare

How like a winter hath my absence been. From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen, What old December’s bareness everywhere! – William Shakespeare

How long a time lies in one little word? – William Shakespeare

How low am I, thou painted maypole? – William Shakespeare (Hermia to Helena)

How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green! – William Shakespeare

How many a holy and obsequious tear hath dear religious love stolen from mine eye, as interest of the dead! – William Shakespeare

How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be acted over In states unborn and accents yet unknown! – William Shakespeare

How many cowards whose hearts are all as false As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars, Who inward searched, have livers white as milk! – William Shakespeare

How many fond fools serve mad jealousy! – William Shakespeare

How much an ill word may empoison liking! – William Shakespeare

How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping? – William Shakespeare

How much more doth beauty beauteous seem by that sweet ornament which truth doth give! – William Shakespeare

How my achievements mock me! – William Shakespeare

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done! – William Shakespeare

How poor are they that have have not patients. – William Shakespeare

How poor are they that have not patience? What wound did ever heal but by degrees? – William Shakespeare

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is To have a thankless child. – William Shakespeare

How slow This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires, Like to a stepdame, or a dowager, Long withering out a young man’s revenue. – William Shakespeare

How soar sweet music is, when time is broke, and no proportion kept! – William Shakespeare

How sometimes nature will betray its folly, Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime To harder bosoms! – William Shakespeare

How strange or odd some’er I bear myself, As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on. – William Shakespeare

How use doth breed a habit in a man! – William Shakespeare

How wayward is this foolish love that, like a testy babe, will scratch the nurse and presently, all humble, kiss the rod. – William Shakespeare

How well he’s read, to reason against reading! – William Shakespeare

However wickedness outstrips men, it has no wings to fly from God. – William Shakespeare

Hung be the heavens with black! Yield, day, to night! – William Shakespeare

I ‘gin to be aweary of the sun, And wish th’ estate o’ th’ world were now undone. – William Shakespeare

I almost die for food, and let me have it! – William Shakespeare

I always thought it was both impious and unnatural that such immanity and bloody strife should reign among professors of one faith. – William Shakespeare

I am a foe to tyrants, and my country’s friend. – William Shakespeare

I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit. – William Shakespeare

I am a Jew: Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with die same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? – William Shakespeare

I am a kind of burr; I shall stick. – William Shakespeare

I am a man more sinned against than sinning.  – William Shakespeare

I am a subject, And I challenge law. Attorneys are denied me, And therefore personally I lay my claim To my inheritance of free descent. – William Shakespeare

I am a true laborer: I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness, glad of other’s good. – William Shakespeare

I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient. – William Shakespeare

I am as true as truth’s simplicity, And simpler than the infancy of truth. – William Shakespeare

I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream. – William Shakespeare

I am bewitched with the rogue’s company. If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I’ll be hanged. – William Shakespeare

I am bound upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears do scald like molten lead. – William Shakespeare

I am declined Into the vale of years. – William Shakespeare

I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here, Pierced to the soul with slander’s venomed spear. – William Shakespeare

I am falser than vows made in wine. – William Shakespeare

I am in blood Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er. – William Shakespeare

I am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger I recover them. – William Shakespeare

I am misanthropos, and hate mankind, For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog, That I might love thee something. – William Shakespeare

I am never merry when I hear sweet music. – William Shakespeare

I am not bound to please thee with my answers. – William Shakespeare

I am not in the giving vein today. – William Shakespeare

I am not in the roll of common men. – William Shakespeare

I am not mad; I would to heaven I were!
For then, ’tis like I should forget myself. – William Shakespeare

I am not merry, but I do beguile the thing I am by seeming otherwise. – William Shakespeare

I am not prone to weeping as our sex commonly are; the want of which vain dew perchance shall dry your pities; but I have that honorable grief lodged here which burns worse than tears drown. – William Shakespeare

I am now of all humors that have showed themselves humors since the old days of goodman Adam to the pupil age of this present twelve o’clock at midnight. – William Shakespeare

I am one, my liege, Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world Have so incensed that I am reckless what I do to spite the world. – William Shakespeare

I am sure care’s an enemy to life. – William Shakespeare

I am sure, Though you can guess what temperance should be, You know not what it is. – William Shakespeare

I am that merry wanderer of the night. – William Shakespeare

I am thy father’s spirit; Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night And, for the day, confin’d to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature, Are burnt and purg’d away. – William Shakespeare

I am too old to fawn upon a nurse, Too far in years to be a pupil now. – William Shakespeare

I am wealthy in my friends. – William Shakespeare

I am wrapped in dismal thinking. – William Shakespeare

I and my bosom must debate awhile, and then I would no other company. – William Shakespeare

I bear a charmed life, which must not yield To one of woman born. – William Shakespeare

I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny, who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. – William Shakespeare

I beseech you, Wrest once the law to your authority: To do a great right, do a little wrong. – William Shakespeare

I came, saw, and overcame. – William Shakespeare

I can call spirits from the vasty deep. – William Shakespeare

I can counterfeit the deep tragedian; Speak and look back, and pry on every side, Tremble and start, at wagging of a straw, Intending deep suspicion. – William Shakespeare

I can express no kinder sign of love, than this kind kiss. – William Shakespeare

I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable. – William Shakespeare

I can give the loser leave to chide. – William Shakespeare

I can no longer live by thinking.– William Shakespeare

I can see his pride Peep through each part of him. – William Shakespeare

I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving. – William Shakespeare

I cannot but remember such things were that were most precious to me. – William Shakespeare

I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats; If it be man’s work, I’ll do’t. – William Shakespeare

I cannot tell what the dickens his name is. – William Shakespeare

I cannot, nor I will not hold me still; My tongue, though not my heart, shall have his will. – William Shakespeare

I care not; a man can die but once; we owe God a death. – William Shakespeare

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end Like quills upon the fretful porpentine. But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O list! – William Shakespeare

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres. – William Shakespeare

I could be well content To entertain the lag-end of my life With quiet hours. – William Shakespeare

I crave fit disposition for my wife; Due reference of place, and exhibition; With such accommodation, and besort, As levels with her breeding. – William Shakespear. 

I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more, is none. – William Shakespeare

I desire you in friendship, and I will one way or other make you amends. – William Shakespeare

I despised my arrival on this earth and I despise my departure; it is a tragedy. – William Shakespeare

I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart but the saying is true ‘The empty vessel makes the greatest sound’. – William Shakespeare

I do begin to have bloody thoughts. – William Shakespeare

I do desire we may be better strangers. – William Shakespeare

I do know when the blood burns, how prodigal the soul lends the tongue vows. – William Shakespeare

I do love My country’s good with a respect more tender, More holy and profound, then mine own life, My dear wife’s estimate, her womb increase, And treasure of my loins. – William Shakespeare

I do not hate a proud man, as I do hate the engendering of toads. – William Shakespeare

I do not know What kind of my obedience I should tender. More than my all is nothing; nor my prayers Are not words holy hallowed, nor my wishes More worth than empty vanities; yet prayers and wishes Are all I can return. – William Shakespeare

I do not seek to quench your love’s hot fire, But qualify the fire’s extreme rage, Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason. – William Shakespeare

I do not set my life at a pin’s fee, And for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself? – William Shakespeare

I do smell all horse-piss; at which my nose is in great indignation. – William Shakespeare

I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl. The secret mischiefs that I set abroach I lay unto the grievous charge of others. – William Shakespeare

I dote on his very absence. – William Shakespeare

I doubt not then but innocence shall make False accusation blush, and tyranny Tremble at patience. – William Shakespeare

I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness; glad of other men’s good, content with my harm. – William Shakespeare

I feel it gone, yet know not when it left. – William Shakespeare

I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience. – William Shakespeare

I give unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture. – William Shakespeare

I had as lief have been myself alone. – William Shakespeare

I had rather have a fool make me merry, than experience make me sad. – William Shakespeare

I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad and to travel for it too! – William Shakespeare

I had rather live with cheese and garlic in a windmill. – William Shakespeare

I hate ingratitude more in a person; than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness, or, any taint of vice whose strong corruption inhabits our frail blood. – William Shakespeare [Twelfth Night]

I have a kind soul that would give you thanks. And knows not how to do it but with tears. – William Shakespeare

I have been long a sleeper; but I trust My absence doth neglect no great design Which by my presence might have been concluded. – William Shakespeare

I have been studying how I may compare This prison where I live unto the world; And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it. Yet I’ll hammer it out. – William Shakespeare

I have heard it said There is an art which in their piedness shares With great creating nature. – William Shakespeare

I have heard of some kind of men that put quarrels purposely on others, to taste their valor. – William Shakespeare

I have heard of your paintings too, well enough God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another. – William Shakespeare

I have Immortal longings in me. – William Shakespeare

I have lived long enough. My way of life is to fall into the sere, the yellow leaf, and that which should accompany old age, as honor, love, obedience, troops of friends I must not look to have. – William Shakespeare

I have lov’d her ever since I saw her; and still I see her beautiful. – William Shakespeare

I have no other but a woman’s reason. I think him so because I think him so. – William Shakespeare

I have not slept one wink. – William Shakespeare

I have nothing Of woman in me; now from head to foot I am marble-constant. – William Shakespeare

I have of late–but wherefore I know not–lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercise. – William Shakespeare

I have offended reputation,
A most unnoble swerving. – William Shakespeare

I have seen roses damask’d, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks… – William Shakespeare

I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion, and I will right myself like a soldier. – William Shakespeare

I have sounded the very base-string of humility. – William Shakespeare

I have thought some of Nature’s journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. – William Shakespeare

I have thrust myself into this maze, Haply to wive and thrive as best I may. – William Shakespeare

I have touch’d the highest point of all my greatness, And from that full meridian of my glory I haste now to my setting. – William Shakespeare

I have trod a measure, I have flattered a lady, I have been politic with my friend, smooth with mine enemy. – William Shakespeare

I have ventured, Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, This many summers in a sea of glory, But far beyond my depth. My high-blown pride At length broke under me, and now has left me, Weary and old with service, to the mercy Of a rude stream that must for ever hide me. – William Shakespeare

I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking: I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment. – William Shakespeare

I heard a bustling rumor like a fray, And the wind blows it from the Capitol. – William Shakespeare

I hold him but a fool that will endanger His body for a girl that loves him not. – William Shakespeare

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part, And mine is a sad one. – William Shakespeare

I hope to see London once ere I die. – William Shakespeare

I hourly learn a doctrine of obedience. – William Shakespeare

I humbly do beseech of your pardon, For too much loving you. – William Shakespeare

I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip. – William Shakespeare

I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say – I love you. – William Shakespeare

I know them, yea, And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple; Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong’ring boys, That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave, and slander, Go antickly, and show outward hideousness, And speak off half a dozen dangerous words, How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst; And this is all. – William Shakespeare

I like not fair terms and a villain’s mind. – William Shakespeare

I love a ballad in print o’ life, for then we are sure they are true. – William Shakespeare

I love thee so, that, maugre all thy pride, Nor wit nor reason can my passion hide. Do not extort thy reasons from this clause, For that I woo, thou therefore hast no cause But rather reason thus with reason fetter, Love sought is good, but given unsought better. – William Shakespeare

I love thee, and it is my love that speaks. – William Shakespeare

I love thee, I love but thee With a love that shall not die Till the sun grows cold And the stars grow old. – William Shakespeare

I love thee; none but thee, and thou deservest it. – William Shakespeare

I love you more than word can wield the matter, Dearer than eye-sight, space and liberty. – William Shakespeare

I may neither choose who I would, nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. – William Shakespeare

I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. – William Shakespeare

I must have liberty
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,
To blow on whom I please. – William Shakespeare

I must to the barber’s, monsieur, for methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face. – William Shakespeare

I myself am best When least in company. – William Shakespeare

I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire. – William Shakespeare

I pray thee cease thy counsel, Which falls into mine ears as profitless as water in a sieve. – William Shakespeare

I pray you bear me henceforth from the noise and rumour of the field, where I may think the remnant of my thoughts in peace, and part of this body and my soul with contemplation and devout desires. – William Shakespeare

I profess not talking: only this, Let each man do his best. – William Shakespeare

I say there is no darkness but ignorance. – William Shakespeare

I see a man’s life is a tedious one. – William Shakespeare

I see men’s judgments are A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward Do draw the inward quality after them, To suffer all alike. – William Shakespeare

I see my reputation is at stake:
My fame is shewdly gor’d. – William Shakespeare

I see that the fashion wears out more apparel than the man. – William Shakespeare

I shall despair. There is no creature loves me; And if I die no soul will pity me: And wherefore should they, since that I myself Find in myself no pity to myself? – William Shakespeare

I shall laugh myself to death at this puppy-headed monster! – William Shakespeare

I shall not look upon his like again. – William Shakespeare

I shall show the cinders of my spirits Through the ashes of my chance. – William Shakespeare

I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart. – William Shakespeare

I speak of peace, while covert enmity under the smile of safety wounds the world. – William Shakespeare

I stalk about her door like a strange soul upon the Stygian banks staying for wattage. – William Shakespeare

I stand for judgment: answer: shall I have it? – William Shakespeare

I swear again, I would not be a queen For all the world. – William Shakespeare

I thank God I am as honest as any man living that is an old man and no honester than I. – William Shakespeare

I thank God I am not a woman, to be touched in so many giddy offences as He hath generally taxed their whole their whole sex withal. – William Shakespeare

I thank you all and here dismiss you all, and to the love and favor of my country commit myself, my person, and the cause. – William Shakespeare

I that please some, try all, both joy and terror Of good and bad, that makes and unfolds error. – William Shakespeare

I think the King is but a man as I am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me. – William Shakespeare

I think thy horse will sooner con an oration than thou learn a prayer without book. – William Shakespeare

I to myself am dearer than a friend. – William Shakespeare

I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking; so full of valor that they smote the air, for breathing in their faces, beat the ground for kissing of their feet. – William Shakespeare

I understand a fury in your words, But not the words. – William Shakespeare

I understand thy kisses, and thou mine, And that’s a feeling disputation. – William Shakespeare

I was a coward on instinct. – William Shakespeare

I was adored once too. – William Shakespeare

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me. – William Shakespeare

I were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion. – William Shakespeare

I will a round unvarnish’d tale deliver. – William Shakespeare

I will be correspondent to command, And do my spiriting gently. – William Shakespeare

I will be free, even to the uttermost, as I please, in words. – William Shakespeare

I will be master of what is mine own: She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, My household stuff, my field, my barn, My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing. – William Shakespeare

I will be treble-sinewed, hearted, breathed, And fight maliciously; for when mine hours Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives Of me for jests; but now I’ll set my teeth And send to darkness all that stop me. – William Shakespeare

I will chide no breather in the world but myself, against whom I know most faults. – William Shakespeare

I will despair, and be at enmity With cozening hope. – William Shakespeare

I will instruct my sorrows to be proud: For grief is proud, and makes his owner stoop. – William Shakespeare

I will keep where there is wit stirring, and leave the faction of fools. – William Shakespeare

I will kill thee a hundred and fifty ways. – William Shakespeare

I will make a Star-chamber matter of it. – William Shakespeare

I will name you the degrees. The first, the Retort Courteous; the second, the Quip Modest; the third, the Reply Churlish; the fourth, the Reproof Valiant; the fifth, the Countercheck Quarrelsome; the sixth, the Lie with Circumstance; the seventh, the Lie Direct. – William Shakespeare

I will not be sworn but love may transform me to an oyster; but I’ll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster of me he shall never make me such a fool. – William Shakespeare

I will praise any man that will praise me. – William Shakespeare

I will through and through Cleanse the foul body of th’ infected world, If they will patiently receive my medicine. – William Shakespeare

I will wear my heart upon my sleeve For daws to peck at. – William Shakespeare

I wish you all the joy that you can wish. – William Shakespeare

I wish you well and so I take my leave, I Pray you know me when we meet again. – William Shakespeare

I wonder men dare trust themselves with men. – William Shakespeare

I wonder that you will still be talking. Nobody marks you. – William Shakespeare

I would fain die a dry death. – William Shakespeare

I would give all of my fame for a pot of ale and safety. – William Shakespeare

I would my horse had the speed of your tongue . . . – William Shakespeare

I would not lose so great an honor As one man more methinks would share with me For the best hope I have. – William Shakespeare

I would that I were low laid in my grave. I am not worth this coil that’s made for me. – William Shakespeare

I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting. – William Shakespeare

I would with such perfection govern, sir, T’excel the golden age. – William Shakespeare

I ‘gin to be aweary of the sun,
And wish the estate o’ the world were now undone. – William Shakespeare

I’ll be at charges for a looking-glass And entertain a score or two of tailors To study fashions to adorn my body: Since I am crept in favor with myself, I will maintain it with some little cost. – William Shakespeare

I’ll be damned for never a king’s son in Christendom. – William Shakespeare

I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, To die upon the hand I love so well. – William Shakespeare

I’ll look to like; if looking, liking move. – William Shakespeare

I’ll make death love me; for I will contend Even with his pestilent scythe. – William Shakespeare

I’ll never Be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand As is a man were author of himself And knew no other kin. – William Shakespeare

I’ll note you in my book of memory. – William Shakespeare

I’ll read enough When I do see the very book indeed Where all my sins are writ, and that’s myself. – William Shakespeare

I’ll say she looks as clear as morning roses newly washed with dew. – William Shakespeare

I’ll take thy word for faith, not ask thine oath; Who shuns not to break one will sure crack both. – William Shakespeare

I’ll teach you differences. – William Shakespeare

I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated To closeness and the bettering of my mind. – William Shakespeare

Ideas are the very coinage of your brain. – William Shakespeare

If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work. – William Shakespeare

If an army marches on its stomach a Church advances on its knees. – William Shakespeare

If by chance I talk a little wild, forgive me; I had it from my father. – William Shakespeare

If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me. – William Shakespeare

If circumstances lead me, I will find Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed Within the centre. – William Shakespeare

If ever (as that ever may be near) you meet in some fresh cheek the power of fancy, then shall you know the wounds invisible that love’s keen, arrows make. – William Shakespeare

If ever thou shalt love, In the sweet pangs of it remember me; For such as I am all true lovers are, Unstaid and skittish in all motions else Save in the constant image of the creature That is beloved. – William Shakespeare

If I can catch him once upon the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. – William Shakespeare

If I for my opinion bleed, opinion shall be surgeon to my hurt, and keep me on the side where still I am. – William Shakespeare

If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do my liking. In the meantime, let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me. – William Shakespeare

If I lose my honor, I lose myself: better I were not yours Than yours so branchless. – William Shakespeare

If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep, My dreams presage some joyful news at hand. My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne, And all this day an unaccustomed spirit Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts. – William Shakespeare

If is a custom, More honor’d in the breach than the observance. – William Shakespeare

If it be honor in your wars to seem The same you are not,–which, for your best ends, You adopt your policy–how is it less or worse, That it shall hold companionship in peace With honour, as in war: since that to both It stands in like request? – William Shakespeare

If it be you that stirs these daughters’ hearts Against their father, fool me not so much To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger, And let not women’s weapons, water drops, Stain my man’s cheeks. – William Shakespeare

If it were done when ’tis done, then t’were well. It were done quickly. – William Shakespeare

If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. – William Shakespeare

If little faults proceeding on distemper Shall not be winked at, how shall we stretch our eye When capital crimes, chewed, swallowed, and digested, Appear before us? – William Shakespeare

If men could be contented to be what they are, there were no fear in marriage. – William Shakespeare

If money go before, all ways do lie open. – William Shakespeare

If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! it had a dying fall: O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound. – William Shakespeare

If our virtues did not go forth of us, it were all alike as if we had them not. – William Shakespeare

If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion. – William Shakespeare

If she be not honest, chaste, and true, there’s no man happy. – William Shakespeare

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. – William Shakespeare

If the masses can love without knowing why, they also hate without much foundation. – William Shakespeare

If there be devils, would I were a devil, To live and burn in everlasting fire, So I might have your company in hell, But to torment you with my bitter tongue! – William Shakespeare

If there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have more occasion to know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt. – William Shakespeare

If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction. – William Shakespeare

If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. – William Shakespeare

If thou engrossest all the griefs are thine, Thou robb’st me of a moiety. – William Shakespeare

If thou remeber’st not the slightest folly that ever love did make thee run into, thou hast not lov’d. – William Shakespeare

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottage princes’ palaces. – William Shakespeare

If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honor. – William Shakespeare

If wishes would prevail with me, my purpose should not fail with me. – William Shakespeare

If yon bethink yourself of any crime Unreconcil’d as yet to heaven and grace, Solicit for it straight. – William Shakespeare

If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me. – William Shakespeare

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. – William Shakespeare

If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i’ th’ shell. – William Shakespeare

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge? – William Shakespeare

If you shall marry, You give away this hand, and this is mine; You give away heaven’s vows, and those are mine; You give away myself, which is known mine; For I by vow am so embodied yours That she which marries you must marry me– Either both or none. – William Shakespeare

If you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt. – William Shakespeare

If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect. We are advertis’d by our loving friends. – William Shakespeare

If’t be summer news, Smile to’t before; if winterly, thou need’st But keep that count’nance still. – William Shakespeare

Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. – William Shakespeare

Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word. – William Shakespeare

In a false quarrel there is no true valour. – William Shakespeare

In delay there lies no plenty. – William Shakespeare

In false quarrels there is no true valor. – William Shakespeare

In God’s name cheerly on, courageous friends, To reap the harvest of perpetual peace By this one bloody trial of sharp war. – William Shakespeare

In law, what plea so tainted and corrupts, but being seasoned with a gracious voice obscures the show of evil. – William Shakespeare

In limited professions there’s boundless theft. – William Shakespeare

In love the heavens themselves do guide the state; Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate. – William Shakespeare

In maiden meditation, fancy free. – William Shakespeare

In my stars I am above thee, but be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness; thrust upon em. – William Shakespeare

In nature’s infinite book of secrecy A little I can read. – William Shakespeare

In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility. – William Shakespeare

In persons grafted in a serious trust, Negligence is a crime. – William Shakespeare

In right and service to their noble country. – William Shakespeare

In scorn of nature, art gave lifeless life. – William Shakespeare

In struggling with misfortunes lies the true proof of virtue. – William Shakespeare

In sweet music is such art: killing care and grief of heart fall asleep, or hearing, die. – William Shakespeare

In the modesty of fearful duty, I read as much as from the rattling tongue of saucy and audacious eloquence. – William Shakespeare

In this weak piping time of peace. – William Shakespeare

In thy youth wast as true a lover, As ever sighed upon a midnight pillow. – William Shakespeare

In time we hate that which we often fear. – William Shakespeare

In winter’s tedious nights sit by the fire With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales Of woeful ages, long ago betid

Inconstancy falls off ere it begins. – William Shakespeare

Indeed, sir, he that sleeps feels not the toothache; but a man that were to sleep your sleep, and a hangman to help him to bed, I think he would change places with his officer; for look you, sir, you know not which way you shall go. – William Shakespeare

Infirmity doth still neglect all office
Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves
When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind
To suffer with the body. – William Shakespeare

Ingrateful man with liquorish draughts, and morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind that from it all consideration slips. – William Shakespeare

Ingratitude is monstrous; and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster of the multitude; of which we being members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous members. – William Shakespeare

Instinct is a great matter. I was now a coward on instinct. – William Shakespeare

Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance? – William Shakespeare

Is it not strange that sheep’s guts should hale souls out of men’s bodies? – William Shakespeare

Is it possible that love should of a sudden take such a hold? – William Shakespeare

Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou ow’st the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Here’s three on’s are sophisticated. Thou art the thing itself; unaccommodated man is no more than such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. – William Shakespeare

Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, Manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man

Is she not passing fair? – William Shakespeare

Is there no respect of place, persons, nor time in you? – William Shakespeare

Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? – William Shakespeare

Is this government of Britain’s Isle, and this the royalty of Albion’s King? – William Shakespeare

Is this the generation of love? Hot blood, hot thoughts and hot deeds? Why, they are vipers. Is love a generation of vipers? – William Shakespeare

It easeth some, though none it ever cured, to think their dolour others have endured. – William Shakespeare

It is a basilisk unto mine eye, Kills me to look on’t. – William Shakespeare

It is a familiar beast to man, and signifies love. – William Shakespeare

It is a heretic that makes the fire, Not she which burns in it. – William Shakespeare

It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds. – William Shakespeare

It is a sin to be a mocker. – William Shakespeare

It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury; signifying nothing. – William Shakespeare

It is a wise father that knows his own child. – William Shakespeare

It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught as men take diseases, one of another. – William Shakespeare

It is great sin to swear unto a sin, But greater sin to keep a sinful oath. – William Shakespeare

It is held that valor is the chiefest virtue, and most dignifies the haver. – William Shakespeare

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. – William Shakespeare

It is lost at dice, what ancient honor won. – William Shakespeare

It is meant that noble minds keep ever with their likes; for who so firm that cannot be seduced. – William Shakespeare

It is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so. – William Shakespeare

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves; we are underlings. – William Shakespeare

It is not vain glory for a man and his glass to confer in his own chamber. – William Shakespeare

It is silliness to live when to live is torment. – William Shakespeare

It is the bright day that brings forth the adder, and that craves wary walking. – William Shakespeare

It is the cowish terror of his spirit that dares not undertake; he’ll not feel wrongs which tie him to an answer. – William Shakespeare

It is the mind that makes the body rich; and as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, so honor peereth in the meanest habit. – William Shakespeare

It is the stars, The stars above us, govern our conditions. – William Shakespeare

It is the witness still of excellency to put a strange face on his own perfection. – William Shakespeare

It is war’s prize to take all vantages; And ten to one is no impeach of valor. – William Shakespeare

It may do good; pride hath no other glass To show itself but pride, for supple knees Feed arrogance and are the proud man’s fees. – William Shakespeare

It provokes the desire but it takes away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him and it mars him; it sets him on and it takes him off. – William Shakespeare

It was a lover and his lass, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, That o’er the green corn-field did pass, In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding; Sweet lovers love the spring. – William Shakespeare

It was always yet the trick of our English nation, if they have a good thing, to make it too common. – William Shakespeare

It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood. – William Shakespeare

It’s easy for someone to joke about scars if they’ve never been cut. – William Shakespeare

I’ll speak to thee in silence. – William Shakespeare

Jesters do often prove prophets. – William Shakespeare

Jesu, Jesu, the mad days that I have spent! And to see how many of my old acquaintance are dead! – William Shakespeare

Journeys end in lovers meeting. – William Shakespeare

Justice always whirls in equal measure. – William Shakespeare

Keep thy friend Under thy own life’s key. – William Shakespeare

Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love. – William Shakespeare

Kindness, nobler ever than revenge. – William Shakespeare

Knavery’s plain face is never seen till used. – William Shakespeare

Knit your hearts with an unslipping knot. – William Shakespeare

Know my name is lost, By treason’s tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit; Yet am I noble as the adversary I come to cope. – William Shakespeare

l do desire we be better strangers. – William Shakespeare

Lady you berefit me of all words, Only my blood speaks to you in my veins, And there is such confusion in my powers. – William Shakespeare

Lawless are they that make their wills their law. – William Shakespeare

Lawn as white as driven snow; Cyprus black as e’er was crow; Gloves as sweet as damask roses. – William Shakespeare

Leave her to heaven And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, To prick and sting her. – William Shakespeare

Leave us to our free election. – William Shakespeare

Lechery, lechery; still, wars and lechery: nothing else holds fashion. – William Shakespeare

Lest too light winning make the prize light. – William Shakespeare

Let each man do his best. – William Shakespeare

Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent. – William Shakespeare

Let every man be master of his time. – William Shakespeare

Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives, Live regist’red upon our brazen tombs And then grace us in the disgrace of death; When, spite of cormorant devouring Time, Th’ endeavor of this present breath may buy That honor which shall bate his scythe’s keen edge And make us heirs of all eternity. – William Shakespeare

Let fancy still in my sense in Lethe steep; If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep! – William Shakespeare

Let gentleness my strong enforcement be. – William Shakespeare

Let husbands know Their wives have sense like them. They see, and smell, And have their palates both for sweet and sour, As husbands have. – William Shakespeare

Let me be boiled to death with melancholy. – William Shakespeare

Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, but graciously to know I am no better. – William Shakespeare

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course. – William Shakespeare

Let me have men about me that are fat, Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o’ nights Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look He thinks too much such men are dangerous. – William Shakespeare

Let me have men about me that are fat… Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much: such men are dangerous. – William Shakespeare

Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as day does night; it’s spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent. – William Shakespeare

Let me not live, after my flame lacks oil, to be the snuff of younger spirits. – William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. – William Shakespeare

Let me say amen betimes lest the devil cross my prayer, for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew. – William Shakespeare

Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself are much condemned to have an itching palm. – William Shakespeare

Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit; All with me’s meet that I can fashion fit. – William Shakespeare

Let no such man be trusted. – William Shakespeare

Let none presume
To wear an undeserv’d dignity.
O, that estates, degrees and offices
Were not deriv’d corruptly, and that clear honour
Were purchas’d by the merit of the wearer! – William Shakespeare

Let none presume To wear an undeserved dignity. – William Shakespeare

Let not our babbling dreams affright our souls; Conscience is but a work that cowards use, Devised at first to keep the strong in awe: Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law! – William Shakespeare

Let not the world see fear and sad distrust govern the motion of a kingly eye. – William Shakespeare

Let the coming hour overflow with joy, and let pleasure drown the brim. – William Shakespeare

Let the galled jade wince; our withers are unwrung. – William Shakespeare

Let the sap of reason quench the fire of passion. – William Shakespeare

Let them obey that know not how to rule. – William Shakespeare

Let there be gall enough in thy ink, though thou write with a goose-pen, no matter. – William Shakespeare

Let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them. – William Shakespeare

Let us kill all lawyers. – William Shakespeare

Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally, I would we could do so for her benefits are mightily misplaced and the bountiful blind girl doth most mistake in her gifts to women. ‘Tis true for those that she makes fair she scarce makes honest and those that she makes honest she makes very ill-favouredly. Nay, now thou goest from Fortunes office to Natures. Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the lineaments of Nature. – William Shakespeare

Let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings:
How some have been depos’d, some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos’d,
Some poison’d by their wives, some sleeping kill’d;
All murder’d. – William Shakespeare

Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares, And think perchance they’ll sell; if not, The lustre of the better yet to show Shall show the better. – William Shakespeare

Let your own discretion be your tutor; suit the action to the word, the word to the action. – William Shakespeare

Let’s all cry peace, freedom, and liberty! – William Shakespeare

Let’s go hand in hand, not one before another. – William Shakespeare

Let’s not burden our remembrance with a heaviness that’s gone. – William Shakespeare

Let’s teach ourselves that honorable stop, Not to outsport discretion. – William Shakespeare

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life. – William Shakespeare

Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man. – William Shakespeare

Light and lust are deadly enemies. – William Shakespeare

Light seeking light doth light of light beguile: So, ere you find where light in darkness lies, Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes. – William Shakespeare

Light vanity, insatiate cormorant, Consuming means, soon preys upon itself. – William Shakespeare

Like a barber’s chair that fits all buttocks. – William Shakespeare

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end; Each changing place with that which goes before, In sequent toil all forwards do contend. – William Shakespeare

Like one who draws the model of a house beyond his power to build it who, half through, gives o’er, and leaves his part-created cost a naked subject to the weeping clouds. – William Shakespeare

Like one Who having into truth, by telling of it, Made such a sinner of his memory, To credit his own lie. – William Shakespeare

Like the lily That once was mistress of the field and flourished, I’ll hang my head and perish. – William Shakespeare

Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds. – William Shakespeare

Lions make leopards tame. – William Shakespeare

Listen to many, speak to a few. – William Shakespeare

Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee! – William Shakespeare

Live loath’d and long, Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites, Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears, You fools of fortune, trencher friends, time flies Cap and knee slaves, vapors, and minute jacks. – William Shakespeare

Loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud. – William Shakespeare

Look how the world’s poor people are amazed at apparitions, signs and prodigies! – William Shakespeare

Look on beauty, and you shall see ’tis purchased by the weight. – William Shakespeare

Look on beauty, and you shall see ’tis purchased by the weight; which therein works a miracle in Nature, making them lightest that wear most of it: so are those crisped snaky golden locks which make such wanton gambols with the wind upon supposed fairness, often known to be the dowry of a second head, the skull that bred them in the sepulchre. – William Shakespeare

Look what thy soul holds dear, imagine it To lie that way thou goest, not whence thou com’st. Suppose the singing birds musicians, The grass whereon thou tread’st the presence strewed, The flowers fair ladies, and thy steps no more Than a delight measure or a dance; For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite The man that mocks at it and sets it light. – William Shakespeare

Look, he’s winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike. – William Shakespeare

Look, what envious streaks do lace the severing clouds in yonder east! Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tip-toe on the misty mountain-tops. – William Shakespeare

Lord Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.
Lord Polonius: What is the matter, my lord?
Hamlet: Between who?
Lord Polonius: I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. – William Shakespeare

Lord, I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face! I had rather lie in the woolen. – William Shakespeare

Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying! – William Shakespeare

Lord, what fools these mortals be! – William Shakespeare

Lords, I protest my soul is full of woe That blood should sprinkle me to make me grow. Come, mourn with me for what I do lament, And put sullen black incontinent. I’ll make a voyage to the Holy Land To wash this blood off from my guilty hand. March sadly after. Grace my mournings here In weeping after this untimely bier. – William Shakespeare

Lords, knights and gentlemen, what I should say My tears gainsay; for every word I speak, Ye see I drink the water of my eye.

Loss of virginity is rational increase; and there was never virgin got, till virginity was first lost. – William Shakespeare

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy rather in power than use; and keep thy friend under thine own life’s key; be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech. – William Shakespeare

Love all. Trust a few. Do wrong to none. This above all: to thine own self be true. No legacy is so rich as honesty. Brevity is the soul of wit. – William Shakespeare

Love and meekness, lord, Become a churchman better than ambition: Win straying souls with modesty again, Cast none away. – William Shakespeare

Love bears it out even to the edge of doom. – William Shakespeare

Love comforteth like sunshine after rain, But Lust’s effect is tempest after sun; Love’s gentle spring doth always fresh remain, Lust’s winter comes ere summer half be done; Love surfeits not, Lust like a glutton dies; Love is all truth, Lust full of forged lies. – William Shakespeare

Love denied blights the soul we owe to God. – William Shakespeare

Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books;But love from love, toward school with heavy looks. – William Shakespeare

Love hath made thee a tame snake. – William Shakespeare

Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes; Being vex’d a sea nourish’d with lovers’ tears: What is it else? a madness most discreet, A choking gall and a preserving sweet. – William Shakespeare

Love is a wonderful, terrible thing. – William Shakespeare

Love is blind, it stops lovers seeing the silly things they do. – William Shakespeare

Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O, no! It is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken. It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. – William Shakespeare

Love is too young to know what conscience is. – William Shakespeare

Love is your master, for he masters you; And he that is so yoked by a fool Methinks should not be chronicled for wise. – William Shakespeare

Love laughs at locksmiths. – William Shakespeare

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. – William Shakespeare

Love reasons without reason. – William Shakespeare

Love runs away from those chasing her, and those who run away, she throws herself on his neck. – William Shakespeare

Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better. – William Shakespeare

Love that we cannot have is the one that lasts the longest, hurts the deepest, but feels the strongest. – William Shakespeare

Love thyself last, cherish those hearts that hate thee; Corruption wins not more than honesty. – William Shakespeare

Love to faults is always blind, always is to joy inclined. Lawless, winged, and unconfined, and breaks all chains from every mind. – William Shakespeare

Love will not be spurred to what it loathes. – William Shakespeare

Love yourself; and in that love not unconsidered leave your honor. – William Shakespeare

Love’s best habit is a soothing tongue. – William Shakespeare

Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love. – William Shakespeare

Love’s heralds should be thoughts, Which ten times faster glide than the sun’s beams Driving back shadows over low’ring hills. Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw Love, And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings. – William Shakespeare

Love’s mind of judgment rarely hath a taste: Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste. – William Shakespeare

Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity In least speak most, to my capacity. – William Shakespeare

Love, whose month is ever May, Spied a blossom passing fair, Playing in the wanton air: Through the velvet leaves the wind, All unseen can passage find; That the lover, sick to death, Wish’d himself the heaven’s breath. – William Shakespeare

Madness in great ones must not unwatched go. – William Shakespeare

Maids want nothing but husbands, and when they have them, they want everything. – William Shakespeare

Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace. Leave gormandizing. – William Shakespeare

Make not your thoughts you prisons. – William Shakespeare

Make the doors upon a woman’s wit and it will out at the casement; shut that and ’twill out at the key-hole; stop that, ’twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney. – William Shakespeare

Make use of time, let not advantage slip. – William Shakespeare

Making night hideous. – William Shakespeare

Man, proud man, drest in a little brief authority, most ignorant of what he’s most assur d, glassy essence, like an angry ape, plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, as make the angels weep. – William Shakespeare

Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage. – William Shakespeare

Many a man’s tongue shakes out his master’s undoing. – William Shakespeare

Many can brook the weather that love not the wind. – William Shakespeare

Many dream not to find, neither deserve, and yet are steeped in favors. – William Shakespeare

Many strokes, though with a little axe,
Hew down and fell the hardest-timber’d oak. – William Shakespeare

Many that are not mad have, sure, more lack of reason. – William Shakespeare

Marriage is a matter of more worth Than to be dealt in by attorneyship. – William Shakespeare

Marriage is a world-without-end bargain. – William Shakespeare

Marry, sir, they praise me and make an ass of me. Now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass; so that by my foes, sir, I profit in the knowledge of myself, any by my friends I am abused; so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives, why then, the worse for my friends, and the better for my foes. – William Shakespeare

May never glorious sun reflex his beams Upon the country where you make abode! But darkness and the gloomy shade of death Environ you till mischief and despair Drive you to break your necks or hang yourselves. – William Shakespeare

Mean and mighty, rotting Together, have one dust. – William Shakespeare

Mechanic slaves With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers, shall Uplift us to the view. – William Shakespeare

Melancholy is the nurse of frenzy. – William Shakespeare

Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives. – William Shakespeare

Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings. – William Shakespeare

Men from children nothing differ. – William Shakespeare

Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love. – William Shakespeare

Men have marble, women waxen, minds. – William Shakespeare

Men must endure their going hence, even as their coming hither; ripeness is all. – William Shakespeare

Men prize the thing ungained more than it is. – William Shakespeare

Men should be what they seem;
Or those that be not, would they might seem none! – William Shakespeare

Men shut their doors against a setting sun. – William Shakespeare

Men so noble, However faulty, yet should find respect For what they have been: ’tis a cruelty To load a falling man.

Men that hazard all Do it in hope of fair advantages: A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross.

Men that make Envy and crooked malice nourishment, Dare bite the best.

Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues
We write in water. – William Shakespeare

Men’s vows are women’s traitors! – William Shakespeare

Men Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief Which they themselves not feel. – William Shakespeare

Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure. – William Shakespeare

Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill. – William Shakespeare

Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so; Pardon is still the nurse of second woe. – William Shakespeare

Merrily, merrily shall I live now, Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. – William Shakespeare

Methinks a father Is at the nuptial of his son a guest That best becomes the table. – William Shakespeare

Methinks I am a prophet new inspired And thus, expiring, do foretell of him: His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last, For violent fires soon burn out themselves; Small show’rs last long, but sudden storms are short; He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes; With eager feeding doth choke the feeder; Light vanity, insatiate cormorant, Consuming means, soon preys upon itself. – William Shakespeare

Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother: I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth. – William Shakespeare

Milk-livered man, That bear’st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs; Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning Thine honor from thy suffering; [that not know’st Fools do those villains pity who are punished Ere they have done their mischief. Where’s thy drum? France spreads his banners in our noiseless land, With plumed helm thy state begins to threat, Whilst thou, a moral fool, sits still and cries ‘Alack, why does he so?’ – William Shakespeare

Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes. – William Shakespeare

Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief. – William Shakespeare

Mine eyes smell onions: I shall weep anon. – William Shakespeare

Mine honor is my life, both grow in one. Take honor from me, and my life is done. Then, dear my liege, mine honor let me try; In that I live, and for that I will die. – William Shakespeare

Miracles are ceased; and therefore we must needs admit the means, how things are perfected. – William Shakespeare

Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. – William Shakespeare

Misery makes sport to mock itself. – William Shakespeare

Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. – William Shakespeare

Modest wisdom plucks me from over-credulous haste. – William Shakespeare

More can I bear than you dare execute. – William Shakespeare

Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue. – William Shakespeare

Most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath. – William Shakespeare

Most friendship is faining, most loving mere folly: Then, heigh-ho, the holly. This life is most jolly. – William Shakespeare

Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds. – William Shakespeare

Much rain wears the marble. – William Shakespeare

Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange and unnatural. – William Shakespeare

Murder’s out of tune,
And sweet revenge grows harsh. – William Shakespeare

My age is as a lusty winter, frosty but kindly. – William Shakespeare

My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep. The more I give thee, the more I have, For both are infinite. – William Shakespeare

My brain more busy than the labouring spider Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies. – William Shakespeare

My business was great, and in such a case as mine a man may strain courtesy. – William Shakespeare

My cake is dough, but I’ll in among the rest, Out of hope of all but my share of the feast.– William Shakespeare

My charity is outrage, life my shame; And in that shame still live my sorrow’s rage! – William Shakespeare

My chastity’s the jewel of our house, bequeathed down from many ancestors. – William Shakespeare

My comfort is, that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no more spoil upon my face. – William Shakespeare

My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain. – William Shakespeare

My cousin’s a fool, and thou art another. – William Shakespeare

My crown is called content; a crown it is that seldom kings enjoy. – William Shakespeare

My crown is in my heart, not on my head, Nor decked with diamonds and Indian stones, Nor to be seen: My crown is called content: A crown it is, that seldom kings enjoy. – William Shakespeare

My crown is in my heart, not on my head. – William Shakespeare

My desolation does begin to make A better life. – William Shakespeare

My endeavors Have ever come too short of my desires. Yet filed with my abilities. – William Shakespeare

My falcon now is sharp and passing empty, and till she stoop she must not be full-gorged, for then she never looks upon her lure. – William Shakespeare

My father compounded with my mother under the Dragon’s tail, and my nativity was under Ursa Major, so that it follows, I am roughand lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. – William Shakespeare

My father names me Autolycus, who being, as I am, littered under Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. – William Shakespeare

My free drift Halts not particularly, but moves itself In a wide sea of wax; no levelled malice Infects one comma in the course I hold, But flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on, Leaving no tract behind. – William Shakespeare

My friends were poor, but honest, so’s my love. – William Shakespeare

My grief lies onward, and my joy behind. – William Shakespeare

My heart is ever at your service. – William Shakespeare

My heart is true as steel. – William Shakespeare

My heart laments that virtue cannot live Out of the teeth of emulation. – William Shakespeare

My heart suspects more than mine eye can see. – William Shakespeare

My library was dukedom large enough. – William Shakespeare

My long sickness Of health and living now begins to mend, And nothing brings me all things. – William Shakespeare

My love is as a fever, longing still For that which longer nurseth the disease, Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, Th’ uncertain sickly appetite to please. My reason, the physician to my love, Angry that his prescriptions are not kept, Hath left me, and I desperate now approve Desire is death, which physic did except. – William Shakespeare

My love is strengthen’d, though more weak in seeming; I love not less, though less the show appear: That love is merchandised whose rich esteeming The owner’s tongue doth publish every where. – William Shakespeare

My love is thaw’d; Which, like a waxen image ‘gainst a fire, bears no impression of the thing it was. – William Shakespeare

My love is thine to teach; teach it but how, And thou shalt see how apt it is to learn. Any hard lesson that may do thee good. – William Shakespeare

My love’s more richer than my tongue. – William Shakespeare

My man’s as true as steel. – William Shakespeare

My master hath been an honorable gentleman; tricks he hath had in him which gentlemen have. – William Shakespeare

My meaning in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me that he is sufficient. – William Shakespeare

My more-having would be as a sauce
To make me hunger more. – William Shakespeare

My nature is subdued to what it works in, like the dyer’s hand. – William Shakespeare

My pride fell with my fortunes. – William Shakespeare

My prophecy is but half his journey yet, For yonder walls, that pertly front your town, Yon towers, whose wanton tops do buss the clouds, Must kiss their own feet. – William Shakespeare

My rage is gone, And I am struck with sorrow. Take him up. Help, three o’ th’ chiefest soldiers; I’ll be one. Beat thou the drum, that it speaks mournfully, Trail your steel spikes. Though in this city he Hath widowed and unchilded many a one, Which to this hour bewail the injury, Yet he shall have a noble memory. Assist. – William Shakespeare

My salad days, when I was green in judgment. – William Shakespeare

My soul is in the sky. – William Shakespeare

My story starts at sea, a perilous voyage to an unknown land. A shipwreck. The wild waters roar and heave. The brave vessel is dashed all to pieces. And all the helpless souls within her drowned. All save one. A lady. Whose soul is greater than the ocean, and her spirit stronger than the sea’s embrace. Not for her a watery end, but a new life beginning on a stranger shore. It will be a love story. For she will be my heroine for all time. And her name will be Viola. – William Shakespeare

My thoughts are whirled like a potter’s wheel; I know not where I am nor what I do. – William Shakespeare

My thoughts are whirled like a potter’s wheel. – William Shakespeare

My way of life Is fall’n into the sear and yellow leaf. – William Shakespeare

My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears, Two traded pilots ‘twixt the dangerous shores Of will and judgment. – William Shakespeare

My wits begin to turn. – William Shakespeare

My word fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go. – William Shakespeare

Myself will straight aboard, and to the state This heavy act with heavy heart relate. – William Shakespeare

Nature does require her times of preservation. – William Shakespeare

Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time. – William Shakespeare

Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace. – William Shakespeare

Nature’s tears are reason’s merriment. – William Shakespeare

Nature, as it grows again toward earth, is fashioned for the journey, dull and heavy. – William Shakespeare

Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I’ll have a suit of sables. – William Shakespeare

Nay, but make haste; the better foot before. – William Shakespeare

Nay, had I pow’r, I should Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, Uproar the universal peace, confound All unity on earth. – William Shakespeare

Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy. – William Shakespeare

Nay, we must think men are not gods, Nor of them look for such observancy As fits the bridal. – William Shakespeare

Ne’er ask me what raiment I’ll wear, for I have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings than legs, nor no more shoes than feet–nay, sometime more feet than shoes, or such shoes as my toes look through the overleather. – William Shakespeare

Neither a borrower nor a lender be For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. – William Shakespeare

Neither my place, nor aught I heard of business, Hath raised me from my bed; nor doth the general care Take hold on me; for my particular grief Is of so floodgate and o’erbearing nature That it engluts and swallows other sorrows, And it is still itself. – William Shakespeare

Never anger made good guard for itself. – William Shakespeare

Never anything can be amiss, when simpleness and duty tender it. – William Shakespeare

Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your Grace, for trouble being gone, comfort should remain; but when you depart from me, sorrow abides and happiness takes his leave. – William Shakespeare

Never durst poet touch a pen to write Until his ink were temper’d with Love’s sighs; – William Shakespeare

Niether a borrower nor a lender be. – William Shakespeare

Nimble thought can jump both sea and land. – William Shakespeare

No evil lost is wailed when it is gone. – William Shakespeare

No legacy is so rich as honesty. – William Shakespeare

No man means evil but the devil, and we shall know him by his horns. – William Shakespeare

No man’s pie is freed From his ambitious finger. – William Shakespeare

No metal can–no, not the hangman’s axe–bear half the keenness of thy sharp envy. – William Shakespeare

No particular scandal one can touch but it confounds the breather. – William Shakespeare

No place indeed should murder sanctuarize; Revenge should have no bounds. – William Shakespeare

No profit grows where no pleasure is taken. – William Shakespeare

No reckoning made, but sent to my account with all my imperfections on my head. – William Shakespeare

No stony bulwark can resist the love, and love dares what anyone can love. – William Shakespeare

No villainous bounty yet hath passed my heart; Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given. – William Shakespeare

No visor does become black villainy so well as soft and tender flattery. – William Shakespeare

No, ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but ’tis enough, ’twill serve: ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world. – William Shakespeare

No, ’tis slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath
Rides on the posting winds and doth belie
All corners of the world; kings, queens and states,
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave
This viperous slander enters. – William Shakespeare

No, I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing. – William Shakespeare

No, madam, ’tis not so well that I am poor, though many of the rich are damned. – William Shakespeare

No, no, I am but shadow of myself: You are deceived, my substance is not here; – William Shakespeare

No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change. – William Shakespeare

None can cure their harms by wailing them. – William Shakespeare

Nor aught so good but strained from that fair use, Revolts from true birth stumbling on abuse. – William Shakespeare

Not a whit, we defy augury: there’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes? – William Shakespeare

Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck, And yet methinks I have astronomy. But not to tell of good or evil luck, Of plagues, of dearths, or season’s quality; Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell … Or say with princes if it shall go well … – William Shakespeare

Not stepping over the bounds of modesty. – William Shakespeare

Nothing can come of nothing. – William Shakespeare

Nothing can seem foul to those who win. – William Shakespeare

Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy. – William Shakespeare

Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it. – William Shakespeare

Nothing is so common as the wish to be remarkable. – William Shakespeare (attributed to)

Nothing routs us but the villainy of our fears. – William Shakespeare

Nothing teems But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs, Losing both beauty and utility. – William Shakespeare

Nothing will come of nothing. – William Shakespeare

Nought’s had, all’s spent,
Where our desire is got without content. – William Shakespeare

Now ’tis spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted; Suffer them now and they’ll o’ergrow the garden. – William Shakespeare

Now all the youth of England are on fire, And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies; Now thrive the armorers, and honor’s thought Reigns solely in the breast of every man.– William Shakespeare

Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. – William Shakespeare

Now he’ll outstare the lightning. To be furious Is to be frightened out of fear. – William Shakespeare

Now I am past all comforts here, but prayer. – William Shakespeare

Now I perceive the devil understands Welsh. – William Shakespeare

Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York, And all the clouds that loured upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths, Our bruised arms hung up for monuments, Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings, Our dreadful marches to delightful measures. Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute. But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks, Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass I, that am rudely stamped, and want love’s majesty To strut before a wanton ambling nymph I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion, Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, And that so lamely and unfashionable That dogs bark at me as I halt by them,– Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace, Have no delight to pass away the time, Unless to spy my shadow in the sun. – William Shakespeare

Now it is the time of night
That the graves, all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite
In the church-way paths to glide. – William Shakespeare

Now join your hands, and with your hands your hearts. – William Shakespeare

Now no way can I stray; Save back to England, all the world’s my way. – William Shakespeare

Now the good gods forbid That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude Towards her deserved children is enrolled In Jove’s own book, like an unnatural dam Should now eat up her own! – William Shakespeare

Now the melancholy God protect thee, and the tailor make thy garments of changeable taffeta, for thy mind is opal. – William Shakespeare

Now the time is come, That France must veil her lofty-plumed crest, And let her head fall into England’s lap. – William Shakespeare

Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground. – William Shakespeare

Now, by the world, it is a lusty wench; I love her ten times more than e’er I did: O, how I long to have some chat with her! – William Shakespeare

Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair. – William Shakespeare

Now, good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both! – William Shakespeare

Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, Hath not old custom made this life more sweet Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods More free from peril than the envious court? – William Shakespeare

Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say I; every man to his business. – William Shakespeare

Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered! – William Shakespeare

O braggart vile and damned furious wight! – William Shakespeare

O brave new world, That has such people in’t! – William Shakespeare

O call not me to justify the wrong, That thy unkindness lays upon my heart, Wound me not with thine eye but with thy tongue, Use power with power, and slay me not by art,… – William Shakespeare

O constancy, be strong upon my side, Set a huge mountain ‘tween my heart and tongue! I have a man’s mind, but a woman’s might. – William Shakespeare

O devil, devil! If that the earth could teem with woman’s tears, each drop she falls would prove a crocodile. – William Shakespeare

O England! Model to thy inward greatness, like little body with a might heart. – William Shakespeare

O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch! Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice? – William Shakespeare

O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies
In the small orb of one particular tear. – William Shakespeare
O for a horse with wings!

O for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention. – William Shakespeare

O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle. – William Shakespeare

O gentle Romeo, If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully. Or if thou think’st I am too quickly won, I’ll frown and be perverse and say thee nay, So thou wilt woo: but else, not for the world. – William Shakespeare

O gentle son, / Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper, sprinkle cool patience. – William Shakespeare

O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world! – William Shakespeare

O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should, with joy, pleas-ance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts! – William Shakespeare

O heaven! were man, But constant, he were perfect. – William Shakespeare

O heresy in fair, fit for these days, A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise. – William Shakespeare

O horror! Horror! Horror! Tongue nor heart Cannot conceive nor name thee! – William Shakespeare

O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible, As a nose on a man’s face, or a weathercock on a steeple. – William Shakespeare

O judgment! thou are fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason! – William Shakespeare

O King, be loyal to the royal within you. – William Shakespeare

O madam, my old heart is cracked, it’s cracked! – William Shakespeare

O momentary grace of mortal men, Which we more hunt for than the grace of God! – William Shakespeare

O most delicate fiend! Who is’t can read a woman? Is there more? – William Shakespeare

O my good lord, that comfort comes too late, ‘Tis like a pardon after execution. That gentle physic, given in time, had cured me; But now I am past all comforts here but prayers. – William Shakespeare

O no, thy love though much, is not so great, It is my love that keeps mine eye awake, Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat, To play the watchman ever for thy sake. For thee watch I, whilst thou dost wake elsewhere, From me far off, with others all too near. – William Shakespeare

O polished perturbation! golden care! That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide To many a watchful night. – William Shakespeare

O Prosperina, For the flowers now that, frighted, thou let’st fall From Dis’s wagon; daffodils, That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty; violets dim, But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes Or Cytherea’s breath; pale primroses, That die unmarried, ere they can behold Bright Phoebus in his strength–a malady Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds, The flower-de-luce being one. – William Shakespeare

O Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo. – William Shakespeare

O shame! Where is thy blush? – William Shakespeare

O sir, you are old; nature in you stands on the very verge of her confine; you should be ruled and led by some discretion, that discerns your fate better than you yourself. – William Shakespeare

O sleep! O gentle sleep! Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down And steep my senses in forgetfulness? Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, And hush’d with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, Than in the perfum’d chambers of the great, Under the canopies of costly state, And lull’d with sound of sweetest melody? – William Shakespeare

O that a lady, of one man refused, Should of another therefore be abused! – William Shakespeare

O the world is but a word; were it all yours to give it in a breath, how quickly were it gone! – William Shakespeare

O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou has no name to be known by, let us call thee devil. O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should, with joy, pleasance revel and applause, transform ourselves into beasts! – William Shakespeare

O thou that dost inhabit in my breast, leave not the mansion so long tenantless; lest, growing ruinous, the building fall and leave no memory of what it was! – William Shakespeare

O tiger’s heart wrapped in a woman’s hide! – William Shakespeare

O villains, vipers, dogs, easily won to fawn on any man! – William Shakespeare

O war! thou son of Hell! – William Shakespeare

O world, how apt the poor are to be proud! – William Shakespeare

O wretched state! O bosom black as death! O limed soul that, struggling to be free, art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay! Bow, stubborn knees! and, heart with strings of steel, be soft as sinews of the new-born babe! – William Shakespeare

O you beast! I’ll so maul you and your toasting-iron, That you shall think the devil is come from hell. – William Shakespeare

O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention. – William Shakespeare

O! I am Fortune’s fool. – William Shakespeare

O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad! – William Shakespeare

O! she doth teach the torches to burn bright It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear; Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear. – William Shakespeare, Romeo

O’ What may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side! – William Shakespeare

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-ey’d monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on. – William Shakespeare

O, but they say, the tongues of dying men enforce attention, like deep harmony: where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain: for they breathe truth, that breathe their words in pain. he, that no more must say, is listened more than they whom youth and ease have taught to gloze; more are men’s ends marked, than their lives before: the setting sun, and music at the close, as the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last; writ in remembrance more than things long past. – William Shakespeare

O, call back yesterday, bid time return. – William Shakespeare

O, had I but followed the arts! – William Shakespeare

O, how full of briers is this working-day world! – William Shakespeare

O, how ripe in show
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow. – William Shakespeare

O, how shall summer’s honey breath hold out Against the wreckful siege of battering days, When rocks impregnable are not so stout, Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays? – William Shakespeare

O, how wretched is that poor man that hangs on princes’ favors. – William Shakespeare

O, I do not like that paying back, ’tis a double labor. – William Shakespeare

O, I have suffered With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel (Who had no doubt some noble creature in her) Dashed all to pieces! O, the cry did knock Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished! – William Shakespeare

O, let my books be then the eloquence And dumb presagers of my speaking breast, Who plead for love, and look for recompense, More than that tongue that more hath more expressed. – William Shakespeare

O, Men’s vows are women’s traitors! All good seeming, By thy revolt, O husband, shall be thought Put on for villainy, not born where’t grows, But worn a bait for ladies. – William Shakespeare

O, my lord, You said that idle weeds are fast in growth: The prince my brother hath outgrown me far. – William Shakespeare

O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven It hath the primal eldest curse upon ‘t, A brother’s murder. – William Shakespeare

O, now, for ever Farewell the tranquil mind farewell content Farewell the plumed troop and the big wars That make ambition virtue O, farewell Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump, The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, The royal banner, and all quality, Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats The immortal Jove’s dread clamours counterfeit, Farewell Othello’s occupation’s gone. – William Shakespeare

O, spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou! – William Shakespeare

O, that men’s ears should be To counsel deaf, but not to flattery! – William Shakespeare

O, that our fathers would applause our loves, To seal our happiness with their consents! – William Shakespeare

O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us! – William Shakespeare

O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the forefinger of an alderman. – William Shakespeare

O, this life Is nobler than attending for a check, Richer than doing nothing for a robe, Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk: Such pain the cap of him that makes him fine Yet keeps his book uncrossed. – William Shakespeare

O, Thou hast damnable iteration; and art, indeed, able to corrupt a saint. – William Shakespeare

O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath! – William Shakespeare

O, what a world of vile ill-favored faults, looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year! – William Shakespeare

O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do, not knowing what they do. – William Shakespeare

O, where is loyalty? If it be banished from the frosty head, Where shall it find a harbor in the earth? – William Shakespeare

O, woe is me, To have seen what I have seen, see what I see. – William Shakespeare

Obey thy parents, keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man’s sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array. * * * Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy pen from lenders’ books. – William Shakespeare

Of all base passions, fear is the most accursed. – William Shakespeare

Of all complexions the culled sovereignty Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek, Where several worthies make one dignity, Where nothing wants that want itself doth seek. – William Shakespeare

Of chastity, the ornaments are chaste. – William Shakespeare

Oft expectation fails, and most oft where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest; and despair most sits. – William Shakespeare

Oft have I heard that grief softens the mind And makes it fearful and degenerate. – William Shakespeare

Oh God! that one might read the book of fate, And see the revolution of the times Make mountains level, and the continent, Weary of solid firmness, melt itself Into the sea. – William Shakespeare

Oh God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! – William Shakespeare

Oh what fools we mortals are. – William Shakespeare

Oh, flatter me; for love delights in praises. – William Shakespeare

Oh, how this spring of love resembleth, The uncertain glory of an April day, Which now shows all beauty of the Sun, And by and by a cloud takes all away. – William Shakespeare

Oh, I have passed a miserable night, so full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams! – William Shakespeare

Oh, injurious love, that respites me a life, whose very comfort is still a dying horror. – William Shakespeare

Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! – William Shakespeare

Oh, that way madness lies; let me shun that. – William Shakespeare

Oh, thou hast a damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me Hal, God forgive thee for it. Before I knew thee Hal, I knew nothing, and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked. – William Shakespeare

Old Time the clock-setter. – William Shakespeare

Omission to do what is necessary Seals a commission to a blank of danger; And danger, like an ague, subtly taints Even then when we sit idly in the sun. – William Shakespeare

Omittance is no quittance. – William Shakespeare

On Rumor’s tongue continual slanders ride. – William Shakespeare

On your eyelids crown the god of sleep, Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness, Making such difference ‘twixt wake and sleep As is the difference betwixt day and night The hour before the heavenly-harness’d team Begins his golden progress in the east. – William Shakespeare

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close the wall up with our English dead In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. – William Shakespeare

One man in his time plays many parts. – William Shakespeare

One may smile, and smile, and be a villain. – William Shakespeare [Hamlet]

One pain is lessened by another’s anguish. – William Shakespeare

One sin another doth provoke. – William Shakespeare

One sin, I know, another doth provoke. Murder’s as near to lust as flame to smoke. – William Shakespeare

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. – William Shakespeare

One whom the music of his own vain tongue doth ravish like enchanting harmony. – William Shakespeare

Open thy gate of mercy, gracious God, My soul flies through these wounds to seek out thee. – William Shakespeare

Opinion crowns with an imperial voice. – William Shakespeare

Opinion’s but a fool, that makes us scan The outward habit by the inward man. – William Shakespeare

Opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects. – William Shakespeare

Oppose not rage while rage is in its force, but give it way a while and let it waste. – William Shakespeare

Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, a face without a heart? – William Shakespeare

Ornament is but the guiled shore to a most dangerous sea. – William Shakespeare

Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners. – William Shakespeare

Our content Is our best having. – William Shakespeare

Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt. – William Shakespeare

Our enemies are our outward consciences. – William Shakespeare

Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, more longing, wavering, sooner lost and won, than women’s are. – William Shakespeare

Our jovial star reigned at his birth. – William Shakespeare

Our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. – William Shakespeare

Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains. – William Shakespeare

Our praises are our wages. – William Shakespeare

Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor; for ’tis the mind that makes the body rich; – William Shakespeare

Our rash faults Make trivial price of serious thing we have, Not knowing them until we know their grave. – William Shakespeare

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie. – William Shakespeare

Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. – William Shakespeare

Our very eyes Are sometimes, like our judgments, blind. – William Shakespeare

Out of my lean and low ability I’ll lend you something. – William Shakespeare

Out of this nettle – danger – we pluck this flower – safety. – William Shakespeare

Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow. – William Shakespeare

Own more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest. – William Shakespeare

Pain pays the income of each precious thing. – William Shakespeare

Pardon, gentles all, the flat unraised spirits that have dared on this unworthy scaffold to bring forth so great an object. – William Shakespeare

Parting is such sweet sorrow. – William Shakespeare

Passion makes the will lord of the reason. – William Shakespeare

Past all shame, so past all truth. – William Shakespeare

Past, and to come, seems best; things present, worst. – William Shakespeare

Pastime passing excellent, if it he husbanded with modesty. – William Shakespeare

Patch grief with proverbs; make misfortune drunk
With candle-wafters; bring him yet to me,
And I of him will gather patience. – William Shakespeare

Patience is sottish, and impatience does become a dog that’s mad. – William Shakespeare

People usually are the happiest at home. – William Shakespeare

Perseverance, my dear Lord. Keeps honour bright. – William Shakespeare

Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts. – William Shakespeare

Pity is the virtue of the law, and none but tyrants use it cruelly. – William Shakespeare

Pleasure and action make the hours seem short. – William Shakespeare

Pleasure and revenge Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice Of any true decision. – William Shakespeare

Plenty and peace breed cowards; hardness ever of hardiness is mother. – William Shakespeare

Plutus himself, That knows the tinct and multiplying med’cine, Hath not in nature’s mystery more science Than I have in this ring.– William Shakespeare

Poise the cause in justice’s equal scales, Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful cause prevails. – William Shakespeare

Poor and content is rich, and rich enough. – William Shakespeare

Poor Desdemona! I am glad thy father’s dead. Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief Shore his old thread in twain. – William Shakespeare

Poor wretches that depend On greatness’ favor, dream as I have done; Wake, and find nothing. – William Shakespeare

Praise us as we are tasted, allow us as we prove. – William Shakespeare

Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear. – William Shakespeare

Pray you now, forget and forgive. – William Shakespeare

Pray, do not mock me. I am a very foolish fond old man, Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less; And, to deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind. – William Shakespeare

Pray, love, remember: and there is pansies, that’s for thoughts. – William Shakespeare

Preferred three hours quicker over one moment late. – William Shakespeare

Prepare for mirth, for mirth becomes a feast. – William Shakespeare

Preposterous ass, that never read so far to know the cause why music was ordain’d! Was it not to refresh the mind of man, after his studies or his usual pain? – William Shakespeare

Present fears are less than horrible imaginings. – William Shakespeare

Present mirth hath present laughter. What’s to come is still unsure. – William Shakespeare

Press not a falling man too far; ’tis virtue: His faults lie open to the laws; let them, Not you, correct him. – William Shakespeare

Princes have but their titles for their glories, An outward honor for an inward toil; And, for unfelt imaginations, They often feel a world of restless cares.

Profit is a blessing, if it’s not stolen. – William Shakespeare

Promising is the very air o’ th’ time; it opens the eyes of expectation. Performance is ever duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable; performance is a kind of will or testament which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it. – William Shakespeare

Promising is the very air o’ the time; it opens the eyes of expectation. – William Shakespeare

Prosperity’s the very bond of love. – William Shakespeare

Pure lips, sweet seals in my soft lips imprinted,
What bargains may I make still to be sealing? – William Shakespeare

Put on The dauntless spirit of resolution. – William Shakespeare

Rashly, And praised be rashness for it–let us know, Our indiscretion sometime serves us well When our deep plots do pall, and that should learn us There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will. – William Shakespeare

Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway, meeting the check of such another day. – William Shakespeare

Reflection is the business of man; a sense of his state is his first duty: but who remembereth himself in joy? Is it not in mercy then that sorrow is allotted unto us? – William Shakespeare

Religious canons, civil laws, are cruel; then what should war be? – William Shakespeare

Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records. – William Shakespeare

Remember thee! Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat In this distracted globe. – William Shakespeare

Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving. – William Shakespeare

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

Retire me to my Milan, where Every third thought shall be my grave. – William Shakespeare

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. – William Shakespeare

Robes and furr’d gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;
Arm it in rags, a pigmy’s straw doth pierce it. – William Shakespeare

Robust grass endures mighty winds; loyal ministers emerge through ordeal. – William Shakespeare

Romans, countrymen, and lovers, hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear. – William Shakespeare

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May. – William Shakespeare

Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,
And of so easy and so plain a stop
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it. – William Shakespeare

Sable Night, mother of Dread and Fear,
Upon the world dim darkness doth display,
And in her vaulty prison stows the Day. – William Shakespeare

Say as you think and speak it from your souls. – William Shakespeare

Say, thou art mine; and ever, My love, as it begins, shall so persevere. – William Shakespeare

Say, what abridgement have you for this evening? What masque, what music? How shall we beguile The lazy time if not with some delight? – William Shakespeare

Scarce can I speak, my choler is so great. Oh! I could hew up rocks, and fight with flint. – William Shakespeare

Scorn, at first, makes after-love the more. – William Shakespeare

Security is the chief enemy of mortals. – William Shakespeare

See first that the design is wise and just: that ascertained, pursue it resolutely; do not for one repulse forego the purpose that you resolved to effect. – William Shakespeare

See that you come
Not to woo honour, but to wed it. – William Shakespeare

See what a ready tongue suspicion hath! – William Shakespeare

See where she comes apparelled like the spring. – William Shakespeare

See, what a ready tongue suspicion hath! He that but fears the thing he would not know, Hath, by instinct, knowledge from others’ eyes, That what he feared is chanced. – William Shakespeare

Self-love is the most inhibited sin in the canon. – William Shakespeare

Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting. – William Shakespeare

Self-loving is not so vile a sin, my liege, as self-neglecting. – William Shakespeare

Send danger from the east unto the west, so honor cross it from the north to south. – William Shakespeare

Sermons in stones and good in every thing. – William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate… When in eternal lines to time thou growst So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. – William Shakespeare

Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn but I shall have my pocket picked? – William Shakespeare

Shall we upon the footing of our land Send fair-play orders, and make compromise, Insinuation, parley, and base truce, To arms invasive? – William Shakespeare

She is a woman, therefore to be won. – William Shakespeare

She is mine own, And I as rich in having such a jewel As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl, The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold. – William Shakespeare

She is your treasure, she must have a husband; I must dance bare-foot on her wedding day, And, for your love to her, lead apes in hell. – William Shakespeare

She speaks poniards, and every word stabs: if her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her; she would infect to the north star. I would not marry her, though she were endowed with all that Adam bad left him before he transgressed. – William Shakespeare

She told her, while she kept it, ‘Twould make her amiable and subdue my father Entirely to her love, but if she lost it Or made a gift of it, my father’s eye Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt After new fancies. – William Shakespeare

She’s beautiful and therefore to be woo’d: She is a woman, therefore to be won. – William Shakespeare

She’s gone. I am abused, and my relief must be to loathe her. – William Shakespeare

She’s good, being gone. – William Shakespeare

Ships are but boards, sailors but men. – William Shakespeare

Ships are but boards, sailors but men; there be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves, I mean pirates, and then there is the peril of waters, winds, and rocks. – William Shakespeare

Shorten my days thou canst with sullen sorrow, And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow; Thou canst help time to furrow me with age, But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage. – William Shakespeare

Should all despair That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind Would hang themselves. – William Shakespeare

Should the poor be flattered? No; let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, and crook the pregnant hinges of the knee where thrift may follow fawning. – William Shakespeare

Show me a mistress that is passing fair, what doth her beauty serve but as a note where I may read who pass’d that passing fair? – William Shakespeare

Sick in the world’s regard, wretched and low. – William Shakespeare

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever, One foot in sea and one on shore; To one thing constant never. – William Shakespeare

Silence is only commendable In a neat’s tongue dried, and a maid not vendible. – William Shakespeare

Silence is the perfectest herald of joy:
I were but little happy, if I could say how much. – William Shakespeare

Simply the thing that I am shall make me live. – William Shakespeare

Sin will pluck on sin. – William Shakespeare

Sin, that amends, is but patched with virtue. – William Shakespeare

Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, But bad mortality o’ersways their power, How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, Whose action is no stronger than a flower? – William Shakespeare

Since Cleopatra died, I have liv’d in such dishonour that the gods Detest my baseness. – William Shakespeare

Since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it; and therefore never floutat me for what I have said against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion. – William Shakespeare

Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice And could of men distinguish her election, Sh’ath sealed thee for herself. – William Shakespeare

Sir, the year growing ancient, Not yet on summer’s death nor on the birth Of trembling winter, the fairest flowers o’ th’ season Are our carnations and streaked gillyvors, Which some call nature’s bastards. – William Shakespeare

Slander, whose whisper over the world’s diameter, as level as the cannon to its blank, transports its poisoned shot. – William Shakespeare

Slanders, sir, for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging think amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. – William Shakespeare

Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast! Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest. – William Shakespeare

Sleep knits up the raveled sleeve of care. – William Shakespeare

Sleep seldom visits sorrow; when it doth, it is a comforter. – William Shakespeare

Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast. – William Shakespeare

Sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye. – William Shakespeare

Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast. – William Shakespeare

Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace. – William Shakespeare

Small to greater matters must give way. – William Shakespeare

Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep. – William Shakespeare

So all my best is dressing old words new. – William Shakespeare

So curses all Eve’s daughters of what complexion soever. – William Shakespeare

So dear I love him that with him, All deaths I could endure. Without him, live no life. – William Shakespeare

So doth the greater glory dim the less: A substitute shines brightly as a king Until a king be by. – William Shakespeare

So far be distant; and good night, sweet friend: thy love ne’er alter, till they sweet life end. – William Shakespeare

So foul and fair a day I have not seen. – William Shakespeare

So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. – William Shakespeare

So full of shapes is fancy That it alone is high fantastical. – William Shakespeare

So get the start of the majestic world And bear the palm alone. – William Shakespeare

So holy and so perfect is my love, And I in such a poverty of grace, That I shall think it a most plenteous crop To glean the broken ears after the man That the main harvest reaps. – William Shakespeare

So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown When judges have been babes; great floods have flown From simple sources, and great seas have dried When miracles have by the greatest been denied. – William Shakespeare

So loving to my mother, That he might not beteem the winds of heaven, Visit her face’ too roughly. – William Shakespeare

So many miseries have craz’d my voice, That my woe-wearied tongue is still and mute. – William Shakespeare

So may he rest, his faults lie gently on him! – William Shakespeare

So may I, blind fortune leading me, Miss that which one unworthier may attain, And die with grieving. – William Shakespeare

So may the outward shows be least themselves; The world is still deceived with ornament. – William Shakespeare

So now I have confessed that he is thine, And I my self am mortgaged to thy will, My self I’ll forfeit, so that other mine, Thou wilt restore to be my comfort still. – William Shakespeare

So shaken as we are, so wan with care, Find we a time for frighted peace to pant And breathe short-winded accents of new broils To be commenced in stronds afar remote. – William Shakespeare

So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows. – William Shakespeare

So they loved as love in twain Had the essence but in one; Two distinct, divisions none… – William Shakespeare

So true a fool is love that in your will,Though you do anything, he thinks no ill. – William Shakespeare

So wise so young, they say, do never live long. – William Shakespeare

So, you are very welcome to our house. It must appear in other ways than words, Therefore, I scant this breathing courtesy. – William Shakespeare

Society is no comfort
To one not sociable. – William Shakespeare

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. – William Shakespeare

Some falls the means are happier to rise. – William Shakespeare

Some glory in their birth, some in their skill, Some in their wealth, some in their bodies’ force, Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill; Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse; And every humor hath his adjunct pleasure, Wherein it finds a joy above the rest. – William Shakespeare

Some innocents ‘scape not the thunderbolt. – William Shakespeare

Some kinds of baseness are nobly undergone. – William Shakespeare

Some men never seem to grow old. Always active in thought, always ready to adopt new ideas, they are never chargeable with foggyism. Satisfied, yet ever dissatisfied, settled, yet ever unsettled, they always enjoy the best of what is, are the first to find the best of what will be. – William Shakespeare

Some men there are love not a gaping pig, some that are mad if they behold a cat, and others when the bagpipe sings I the nose cannot contain their urine. – William Shakespeare

Some report a sea-maid spawn’d him; some that he was begot between two stock-fishes. But it is certain that when he makes water his urine is congealed ice. – William Shakespeare

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall. – William Shakespeare

Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long;
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow’d and so gracious is the time. – William Shakespeare

Some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time. – William Shakespeare

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. – William Shakespeare

Sometimes, less is more. – William Shakespeare

Sorrow, like a heavy ringing bell, once set on ringing, with its own weight goes; then little strength rings out the doleful knell. – William Shakespeare

Speak low, if you speak love. – William Shakespeare

Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice. – William Shakespeare

Speak on, but be not over-tedious. – William Shakespeare

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounce it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. – William Shakespeare

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you-trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say, the whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. – William Shakespeare

Speak to me as to thy thinkings, As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of thoughts The worst of words. – William Shakespeare

Speak, what trade art thou? Why, sir, a carpenter. Where is thy leather apron and thy rule? What does thou with thy best apparel on? – William Shakespeare

Spirits are not finely touched But to fine issues. – William Shakespeare

Stay we no longer, dreaming of renown, But sound the trumpets, and about our task. – William Shakespeare

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. – William Shakespeare

Still constant is a wondrous excellence. – William Shakespeare

Stones have been known to move and trees to speak. – William Shakespeare

Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. – William Shakespeare

Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well. – William Shakespeare

Strong reasons make strong actions. – William Shakespeare

Study is like the heaven’s glorious sun, That will not be deep-searched with saucy looks: Small have continual plodders ever won, Save base authority from others’ books. – William Shakespeare

Such antics do not amount to a man. – William Shakespeare

Such as we are made of, such we be. – William Shakespeare

Such is my love, to thee I so belong, That for thy right myself will bear all wrong. – William Shakespeare

Such seems your beauty still. – William Shakespeare

Suit the action to the world, the world to the action, with this special observance, that you overstep not the modesty of nature. – William Shakespeare

Supposition all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes; For treason is but trusted like the fox, Who, ne’er so tame, so cherished and locked up, Will have a wild trick of his ancestors. – William Shakespeare

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; The thief doth fear each bush an officer. – William Shakespeare

Suspicion shall be all stuck full of eyes. – William Shakespeare

Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art, A good mouth-filling oath. – William Shakespeare

Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, And good in everything. – William Shakespeare

Sweet flowers are slow and weeds make haste. – William Shakespeare

Sweet love! Sweet lines! Sweet life! Here is her hand, the agent of her heart; Here is her oath for love, her honour’s pawn. – William Shakespeare

Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge. – William Shakespeare

Sweet recreation barred, what doth ensue but moody and dull melancholy, kinsman to grim and comfortless despair. – William Shakespeare

Sweets to the sweet; farewell! – William Shakespeare

Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy. – William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare Quotes

T’is true: there’s magic in the web of it… – William Shakespeare

Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise, Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affection, Figures pedantical–these summer flies Have blown me full of maggot ostentation. – William Shakespeare

Take her away; for she hath lived too long, To fill the world with vicious qualities. – William Shakespeare

Take it in what sense thou wilt. – William Shakespeare

Take note, take note, O world,
To be direct and honest is not safe. – William Shakespeare

Take physic, pomp; Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou mayst shake the superflux to them And show the heavens more just.  – William Shakespeare

Talkers are no good doers.  – William Shakespeare

Talking isn’t doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds. – William Shakespeare

Taste your legs, sire: put them into motion. – William Shakespeare

Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made For kissing, lady, not for such contempt. – William Shakespeare

Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye. – William Shakespeare

Tears harden lust, though marble wear with raining. – William Shakespeare

Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart, or in the head? How begot, how nourished? Reply, reply. It is engend’red in the eyes, With gazing fed, and fancy dies In the cradle where it lies. – William Shakespeare

Tell truth and shame the devil. – William Shakespeare

Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart. – William Shakespeare

Temptation: the fiend at my elbow. – William Shakespeare

Ten masts make not the altitude Which thou hast perpendicularly fell. Thy life’s a miracle. – William Shakespeare

The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power. – William Shakespeare

Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds. – William Shakespeare

Thanks to men Of noble minds, is honorable meed. – William Shakespeare

Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute. – William Shakespeare

That book in many’s eyes doth share the glory
That in gold clasps locks in the golden story. – William Shakespeare

That England, that was wont to conquer others, Hath made a shameful conquest of itself. – William Shakespeare

That god forbid, that made me first your slave, I should in thought control your times of pleasure, Or at your hand th’ account of hours to crave, Being your vassal bound to stay your leisure. – William Shakespeare

That he is mad, ’tis true; ’tis true ’tis pity; And pity ’tis ’tis true. – William Shakespeare

That is honor’s scorn Which challenges itself as honor’s born And is not like the sire. Honors thrive When rather from our acts we them derive Than our foregoers. – William Shakespeare

That is my home of love: if I have ranged, Like him that travels I return again, Just to the time, not with the time exchanged. – William Shakespeare

That is not the best sermon which makes the hearers go away talking to one another and praising the speaker, but which makes them go away thoughtful and serious, and hastening to be alone. – William Shakespeare

That island of England breeds very valiant creatures; their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage. – William Shakespeare

That orbed continent the fire
That severs day from night. – William Shakespeare

That that is is. – William Shakespeare

That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold; What hath quenched them hath given me fire. – William Shakespeare

That which I would discover The law of friendship bids me to conceal. – William Shakespeare

That which is now a horse even with a thought
The rack disdains, and makes it indistinct
As water is in water. – William Shakespeare

That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in. and the best of me is diligence. – William Shakespeare

That you were once unkind befriends me now, And for that sorrow, which I then did feel, Needs must I under my transgression bow, Unless my nerves were brass or hammered steel… – William Shakespeare

That’s a valiant flea that dares eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion. – William Shakespeare

That, if then I had waked after a long sleep, will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming, the clouds me thought would open and show riches ready to drop upon me; that, when I waked I cried to dream again. – William Shakespeare

That, sir, which serves and seeks for gain, And follows but for form, Will pack, when it begins to rain, And leave thee in a storm. – William Shakespeare

The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power. – William Shakespeare

The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untie. – William Shakespeare

The appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony. – William Shakespeare

The art of our necessities is strange,
That can make vile things precious. – William Shakespeare

The attempt and not the deed confounds us. – William Shakespeare

The band that seems to tie their friendship together will be the very strangler of their amity. – William Shakespeare

The bay-trees in our country are all withered, And meteors fright the fixèd stars of heaven. The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth, And lean-looked prophets whisper fearful change. Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap; The one in fear to lose what they enjoy, The other to enjoy by rage and war. These signs forerun the death or fall of kings. – William Shakespeare

The best quarrels, in the heat, are cursed by those that feel their sharpness. – William Shakespeare

The better part of valour is discretion. – William Shakespeare

The bird that hath been limed in a bush, with trembling wings misdoubteth every bush. – William Shakespeare

The bitter clamor of two eager tongues. – William Shakespeare

The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet. – William Shakespeare

The blood more stirs To rouse a lion than to start a hare! – William Shakespeare

The blood of youth burns not with such excess as gravity’s revolt to wantonness. – William Shakespeare

The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape, In forms imaginary, th’ unguided days And rotten times that you shall look upon When I am sleeping with my ancestors. – William Shakespeare

The brain may devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps over a cold decree. – William Shakespeare

The breach of custom Is breach of all. – William Shakespeare

The caterpillars of the commonwealth, Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away. – William Shakespeare

The cheek Is apter than the tongue to tell an errand. – William Shakespeare

The choices we make, dictate the lives we lead. – William Shakespeare

The clock upbraids me with the waste of time. – William Shakespeare

The color of the king doth come and go, Between his purpose and his conscience, Like heralds ‘twixt two dreadful battles set: His passion is so ripe, it needs must break. – William Shakespeare

The commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts. – William Shakespeare

The course of true love never did run smooth. – William Shakespeare

The course of true love was never easy. – William Shakespeare

The coward dies a thousand deaths, the valiant, only once! – William Shakespeare

The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark When neither is attended; and I think The nightingale, if she should sing by day When every goose is cackling, would be thought No better a musician than the wren. How many thing by season seasoned are To their right praise and true perfection! – William Shakespeare

The cunning livery of hell. – William Shakespeare

The curse of marriage That we can call these delicate creatures ours And not their appetites! – William Shakespeare

The Dear father Would with his daughter speak, commands her service; Are they inform’d of this? – William Shakespeare

The deep of night is crept upon our talk, And Nature must obey necessity. – William Shakespeare

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart. O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath! – William Shakespeare

The devil can site scripture for his own purpose! An evil soul producing holy witness is like a villain with a smiling cheek. – William Shakespeare [Merchant Of Venice]

The devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape. – William Shakespeare

The devil knew what he did when he made men politic; he crossed himself by it. – William Shakespeare

The devil shall have his bargain; for he was never yet a breaker of proverbs–he will give the devil his due. – William Shakespeare

The dreadful dead of dark midnight. – William Shakespeare

The due of honor in no point omit. – William Shakespeare

The dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits. – William Shakespeare

The eagle suffers little birds to sing, And is not careful what they mean thereby, Knowing that with the shadow of his wings He can at pleasure stint their melody: Even so mayest thou the giddy men of Rome. – William Shakespeare

The earth has music for those who listen. – William Shakespeare

The earth, that is nature’s mother, is her tomb. – William Shakespeare

The empty vessel makes the greatest sound. – William Shakespeare

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound. – William Shakespeare

The error of our eye directs our mind. What error leads must err. – William Shakespeare

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover, Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank, Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burrs, Losing both beauty and utility. – William Shakespeare

The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones. – William Shakespeare

The expedition of my violent love outrun the pauser, reason. – William Shakespeare

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action.  – William Shakespeare

The fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it. – William Shakespeare

The fashion wears out more apparel than the man. – William Shakespeare

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. – William Shakespeare

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers. – William Shakespeare

The fittest time to corrupt a man’s wife is when she’s fallen out with her husband. – William Shakespeare

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. – William Shakespeare

The fool multitude, that choose by show, not learning more than the fond eye doth teach. – William Shakespeare

The Foole doth thinke he is wise, but the wiseman knowes himselfe to be a Foole. – William Shakespeare

The fortune of us that are the moon’s men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is, by the moon. – William Shakespeare

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel, but do not dull thy palm with entertainment of each new-hatched unfledged comrade. – William Shakespeare

The fringed curtains of thine eye advance, And say what thou seest yond. – William Shakespeare

The game is up. – William Shakespeare

The gates of monarchs Are arched so high that giants may jet through And keep their impious turbans on without Good morrow to the sun. – William Shakespeare

The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day Is crept into the bosom of the sea. – William Shakespeare

The glowworm shows the matin to be near And gins to pale his uneffectual fire. – William Shakespeare

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us. – William Shakespeare

The golden age is before us, not behind us. – William Shakespeare

The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night, Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light. – William Shakespeare

The hand of little employment hath the daintier sense. – William Shakespeare

The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good. – William Shakespeare

The happiest youth, viewing his progress through, What perils past, what crosses to ensue, Would shut the book, and sit him down and die. – William Shakespeare

The head is not more native to the heart. – William Shakespeare

The heart hath treble wrong When it is barr’d the aidance of the tongue. – William Shakespeare

The heavenly-harness’d team Begins his golden progress in the east. – William Shakespeare

The heavens forbid But that our loves and comforts should increase Even as our days do grow! – William Shakespeare

The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre Observe degree, priority, and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, Office, and custom, in all line of order. – William Shakespeare

The Hebrew will turn Christian; he grows kind. – William Shakespeare

The hideous god of war. – William Shakespeare

The hind that would be mated by the lion Must die for love. – William Shakespeare

The ides of March are come. – William Shakespeare – William Shakespeare

The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time. – William Shakespeare

The insolence of office. – William Shakespeare

The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift, but none of love. – William Shakespeare

The jury, passing on the prisoner’s life, May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two Guiltier than him they try. – William Shakespeare

The king is but a man, as I am; the violet smells to him as it doth to me; the element shows to him as it doth to me; all his senses have but human conditions; his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man; and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing. – William Shakespeare

The king-becoming graces, As justice, verity, temp’rance, stableness, Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, I have no relish of them, but abound In the division of each several crime, Acting in many ways. – William Shakespeare

The lady doth protest too much, methinks. – William Shakespeare

The language I have learnt these forty years, My native English, now I must forgo; And now my tongue’s use is to me no more Than an unstringed viol or a harp, Or like a cunning instrument cased up Or, being open, put into his hands That knows no touch to tune the harmony. – William Shakespeare

The last taste of sweets is sweetest last. – William Shakespeare

The latter end of a fray, and the beginning of a feast, Fits a dull fighter, and a keen guest. – William Shakespeare

The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept. – William Shakespeare

The leopard does not change his spots. – William Shakespeare

The lily I condemned for thy hand, And buds of marjoram had stol’n thy hair: The roses fearfully on thorns did stand, One blushing shame, another white despair; A third, nor red nor white, had stol’n of both And to his robbery had annex’d thy breath; But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth A vengeful canker eat him up to death. More flowers I noted, yet I none could see But sweet or colour it had stol’n from thee. – William Shakespeare

The liquid drops of tears that you have shed Shall come again, transform’d to orient pearl, Advantaging their loan with interest Of ten times double gain of happiness. – William Shakespeare

The little foolery that wise men have makes a great show. – William Shakespeare

The love of heaven makes one heavenly. – William Shakespeare

The love of wicked men converts to fear; That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both To worthy danger and deserved death. – William Shakespeare

The loyalty, well held to fools, does make
Our faith mere folly. – William Shakespeare

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact. – William Shakespeare

The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils. The motions of his spirit are dull as night, and his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted. – William Shakespeare

The mightier man, the mightier is the thing That makes him honored or begets him hate; For greatest scandal waits on greatest state. – William Shakespeare

The mightiest space in fortune nature brings To join like likes and kiss like native things. – William Shakespeare

The mind of guilt is full of scorpions. – William Shakespeare

The miserable have no medicine but hope. – William Shakespeare

The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle that’s curded by the frost from purest snow. – William Shakespeare

The moon, like to a silver bow new bent in heaven. – William Shakespeare

The more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite. – William Shakespeare

The morning steals upon the night, Melting the darkness. – William Shakespeare

The most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is and steal out of your company. – William Shakespeare

The object of art is to give life a shape. – William Shakespeare

The old folk, time’s doting chronicles. – William Shakespeare

The painful warrior famous for fight, After a thousand victories, once foil’d, Is from the books of honor razed quite, And all the rest forgot for which he toil’d. – William Shakespeare

The past is prologue. – William Shakespeare

The path is smooth that leadeth on to danger. – William Shakespeare

The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords, in such a just and charitable war. – William Shakespeare

The people are the city. – William Shakespeare

The plants look up to heaven, from whence they have their nourishment. – William Shakespeare

The play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king. – William Shakespeare

The play’s the thing. – William Shakespeare

The pleasant’st angling is to see the fish Cut with her golden oars the silver stream And greedily devour the treacherous bait. – William Shakespeare

The pleasing punishment that women bear. – William Shakespeare

The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, From earth to heaven. – William Shakespeare

The poor world is almost six thousand years old, and in all this time there was not any man died in his own person, videlicet, in a love-cause. – William Shakespeare

The Possible’s slow fuse is lit By the Imagination. – William Shakespeare

The presence of a king engenders love Amongst his subjects, and his royal friends. – William Shakespeare

The present eye praises the present object. – William Shakespeare

The prince of darkness is a gentleman. – William Shakespeare

The private wound is deepest. O time most accurst, ‘Mongst all foes that a friend should be the worst! – William Shakespeare

The prize of all too precious you. – William Shakespeare

The purest treasure mortal times afford Is spotless reputation; that away, Men are but gilded loam or painted clay. – William Shakespeare

The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed- It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes. – William Shakespeare

The rain, it raineth every day. – William Shakespeare

The rarer action is In virtue than in vengeance. – William Shakespeare

The readiness is all. – William Shakespeare

The rest is silence. – William Shakespeare

The ripest fruit first falls. – William Shakespeare

The robb’d that smiles, steals something from the thief;
He robs himself that spends a bootless grief. – William Shakespeare

The royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war; This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea. – William Shakespeare

The sands are number’d that make up my life. – William Shakespeare

The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose, And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer, The childing autumn, angry winter, change Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world, By their increase, now knows not which is which. – William Shakespeare

The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose. – William Shakespeare

The seasons change their manners, as the year Had found some months asleep and leapt them over. – William Shakespeare

The seeming truth which cunning times put on to entrap the wisest. – William Shakespeare

The sense of death is most in apprehension. – William Shakespeare

The setting sun, and the music at the close, As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last, Writ in rememberance more than long things past. – William Shakespeare

The sight of lovers feedeth those in love. – William Shakespeare

The skies are painted with unnumber’d sparks,
They are all fire and every one doth shine,
But there’s but one in all doth hold his place. – William Shakespeare

The soul of this man is in his clothes. – William Shakespeare

The soul’s joy lies in doing. – William Shakespeare

The southern wind Doth play the trumpet to his purposes; And, by his hollow whistling in the leaves, Foretells a tempest and a blustering day. – William Shakespeare

The spirit of a youth That means to be of note, begins betimes. – William Shakespeare

The spring, the summer, The chilling autumn, angry winter, change Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world By their increase, now knows not which is which. – William Shakespeare

The strawberry grows underneath the nettle And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best Neighbour’d by fruit of baser quality. – William Shakespeare

The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch, Which hurts and is desired. – William Shakespeare

The summer’s flow’r is to the summer sweet, Though to itself it only live and die’ But if that flow’r with base infection meet, The basest weed outbraves his dignity: For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds. – William Shakespeare

The sun with one eye vieweth all the world. – William Shakespeare

The sweat of industry would dry and die, But for the end it works to. – William Shakespeare

The sweetest honey Is loathsome in his own deliciousness. – William Shakespeare

The sweets we wish for, turn to loathed sours, Even in the moment that we call them ours. – William Shakespeare

The tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow. – William Shakespeare

The teeming Autumn big with rich increase, bearing the wanton burden of the prime like widowed wombs after their lords decease. – William Shakespeare

The tempter or the tempted, who sins most? Ha! Not she: nor doth she tempt: but it is I That, lying by the violet in the sun, Do as the carrion does, not as the flower, Corrupt with virtuous season. – William Shakespeare

The Thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman; and to be King Stands not within the prospect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. – William Shakespeare

The third day comes a frost, a killing frost. – William Shakespeare

The thorny point Of bare distress hath ta’en from me the show Of smooth civility; yet am I inland bred And know some nurture. – William Shakespeare

The time is out of joint. O cursed spite that ever I was born to set it right! – William Shakespeare

The time of universal peace is near. Prove this a prosp’rous day, the three-nooked world Shall bear the olive freely. – William Shakespeare

The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen As is the razor’s edge invisible. – William Shakespeare

The truest poetry is the most feigning. – William Shakespeare

The trust I have is in mine innocence, and therefore am I bold and resolute. – William Shakespeare

The tyrant custom, most grave senators, Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war My thrice-driven bed of down. – William Shakespeare

The undeserver may sleep when the man of action is called on. – William Shakespeare

The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns. – William Shakespeare

The urging of that word, judgment, hath bred a kind of remorse in me. – William Shakespeare

The valiant never taste of death but once. – William Shakespeare

The venom clamours of a jealous woman poison more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth. – William Shakespeare

The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. – William Shakespeare

The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. – William Shakespeare

The violence of either grief or joy, their own enactures with themselves destroy. – William Shakespeare

The voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, and act and speak as if cheerfulness wee already there. To feel brave, act as if we were brave, use all our will to that end, and courage will very likely replace fear. If we act as if from some better feeling, the bad feeling soon folds its tent like an Arab and silently steals away. – William Shakespeare

The weakest goes to the wall. – William Shakespeare

The weakest kind of fruit drops earliest to the ground. – William Shakespeare

The weariest and most loathed worldly life, that age, ache, penury and imprisonment can lay on nature is a paradise, to what we fear of death. – William Shakespeare

The weary sun hath made a golden set And by the bright tract of his fiery car Gives token of a goodly day to-morrow. – William Shakespeare

The weight of this sad time we must obey; Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. – William Shakespeare

The wheel is come full circle. – William Shakespeare

The will is deaf and hears no heedful friends. – William Shakespeare

The will of man is by his reason sway’d. – William Shakespeare

The world must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married. – William Shakespeare

The world’s mine oyster, Which I with sword will open. – William Shakespeare

The worst is not so long as we can say, “This is the worst.” – William Shakespeare

The wound of peace is surety, Surety secure; but modest doubt is called The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches To th’ bottom of the worst. – William Shakespeare

The wounds invisible that Love’s keen arrows make. – William Shakespeare

Their lips were four red roses on a stalk. – William Shakespeare

Their savage eyes turned to a modest gaze by the sweet power of music. – William Shakespeare

Their understanding Begins to swell and the approaching tide Will shortly fill the reasonable shores That now lie foul and muddy. – William Shakespeare

Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty. – William Shakespeare

Then happy I that love and am beloved, where I may not remove nor be removed. – William Shakespeare

Then is it sin to rush into the secret house of death. Ere death dare come to us? – William Shakespeare

Then to Silvia let us sing that Silvia is excelling. She excels each mortal thing upon the dull earth dwelling. – William Shakespeare

Then was I as a tree whose boughs did bend with fruit; but in one night, a storm or robbery, call it what you will, shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves, and left me bare to weather. – William Shakespeare

Then will I raise aloft the milk-white rose. For whose sweet smell the air shall be perfumed. – William Shakespeare

Then with the losers let it sympathize, For nothing can seem foul to those that win. – William Shakespeare

There are a sort of men, whose visages Do cream and mantle, like a standing pond; And do a willful stillness entertain, With purpose to be dressed in an opinion Of wisdom, gravity profound conceit; As who should say, I am sir Oracle, And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark! – William Shakespeare

There are many events in the womb of time, which will be delivered. – William Shakespeare

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. – William Shakespeare

There are occasions and causes, why and wherefore in all things. – William Shakespeare

There have been many great men that have flattered the people who ne’er loved them. – William Shakespeare

There is a devilish mercy in the judge, if you’ll implore it, that will free your life, but fetter you till death. – William Shakespeare

There is a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will. – William Shakespeare

There is a history in all men’s lives, Figuring the nature of the times deceased, The which observed, a man may prophesy, With a near aim, of the main chance of things As yet not come to life, which in their seeds And weak beginnings lie intreasured. – William Shakespeare

There is a history in all men’s lives. – William Shakespeare

There is a kind of character in thy life, That to the observer doth thy history, fully unfold. – William Shakespeare

There is a law in each well-ordered nation To curb those raging appetites that are Most disobedient and refractory. – William Shakespeare

There is a method to madness! – William Shakespeare

There is a river in Macedon, and there is moreover a river in Monmouth. It is called Wye at Monmouth, but it is out of my prains what is the name of the other river; but ’tis all one, ’tis alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both. – William Shakespeare

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures. – William Shakespeare

There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound by shallows and in misery. – William Shakespeare [Julius Caesar]

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. – William Shakespeare

There is a willow grows aslant a brook, That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; There with fantastic garlands did she come Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them: There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke; When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. – William Shakespeare

There is no creature loves me; And if I die, no soul will pity me. – William Shakespeare

There is no darkness but ignorance. – William Shakespeare

There is no evil angel but Love. – William Shakespeare

There is no love-broker in the world can more prevail in man’s commendation with woman than report of valor. – William Shakespeare

There is no slander in an allowed fool, though he do nothing but rail. – William Shakespeare

There is no such sport as sport by sport o’erthrown. – William Shakespeare

There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, For I am armed so strong in honesty That they pass by me as the idle wind . – William Shakespeare

There is no vice so simple but assumes some mark of virtue on his outward parts. – William Shakespeare

There is none but he Whose being I do fear; and under him My genius is rebuked, as it is said Mark Antony’s was by Caesar. – William Shakespeare

There is not one wise man in twenty that will praise himself. – William Shakespeare

There is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous men. – William Shakespeare

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. – William Shakespeare

There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things. – William Shakespeare

There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,For I did dream of money-bags to-night. – William Shakespeare

There live not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat and grows old. – William Shakespeare

There lives within the very flame of love A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it. – William Shakespeare

There she shook
The holy water from her heavenly eyes,
And clamour moisten’d. – William Shakespeare

There should be hours for necessities, not for delights; times to repair our nature with comforting repose, and not for us to waste these times. – William Shakespeare

There was a star danced, and under that was I born. – William Shakespeare

There was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass. – William Shakespeare

There was speech in their dumbness, language in their very gesture. – William Shakespeare

There’s a small choice in rotten apples. – William Shakespeare

There’s a time for all things. – William Shakespeare

There’s beggary in love that can be reckoned. – William Shakespeare

There’s daggers in men’s smiles. – William Shakespeare

There’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year. – William Shakespeare

There’s husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out. – William Shakespeare

There’s many a man has more hair than wit. – William Shakespeare

There’s never a villain dwelling in all Denmark But he’s an arrant knave. – William Shakespeare

There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face. – William Shakespeare

There’s no trust, no faith, no honesty in men; all perjured, all forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers. – William Shakespeare

There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting. – William Shakespeare

There’s not a shirt and a half in all my company, and the half shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like a herald’s coat without sleeves. – William Shakespeare

There’s not one wise man among twenty will praise himself. – William Shakespeare

There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st But in his motion like an angel sings. – William Shakespeare

There’s place and means for every man alive. – William Shakespeare

There’s small choice in rotten apples. – William Shakespeare

There’s villainous news abroad. – William Shakespeare

Therefore it is most expedient for the wise, if Don Worm (his conscience) find no impediment to the contrary, to be the trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myself. – William Shakespeare

There’s such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would. – William Shakespeare

These blessed candles of the night. – William Shakespeare

These flowers are like the pleasures of the world. – William Shakespeare

These signs have marked me extraordinary, And all the courses of my life do show I am not in the roll of common men. – William Shakespeare

These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume: the sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
And in the taste confounds the appetite:
Therefore love moderately; long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. – William Shakespeare

These words are razors to my wounded heart. – William Shakespeare

They are hare-brain’d slaves. – William Shakespeare

They are in the very wrath of love, and they will go together. Clubs cannot part them. – William Shakespeare

They are sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing. – William Shakespeare

They do not love that do not show their love. The course of true love never did run smooth. Love is a familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but Love. – William Shakespeare

They do not love that do not show their love. – William Shakespeare

They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps. – William Shakespeare

They laugh that win. – William Shakespeare

They lie deadly that tell you have good faces. – William Shakespeare

They may seize On the white wonder of dear Juliet’s hand And steal immortal blessing from her lips, Who, even in pure and vestal modesty, Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin. – William Shakespeare

They say miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons, to make modern and familiar, things supernatural and causeless. – William Shakespeare

They say, best men are moulded out of faults, And, for the most, become much more the better For being a little bad. – William Shakespeare

They say, the tongues of dying men Enforce attention, like deep harmony; Where words are scarce, they’re seldom spent in vain; For they breathe truth, that breathe their words in pain. – William Shakespeare

They that have voice of lions and act of hares,–are they not monsters? – William Shakespeare

They that touch pitch will be defiled. – William Shakespeare

They told me I was everything. ‘Tis a lie, I am not ague-proof. – William Shakespeare

They were devils incarnate. – William Shakespeare

They whose guilt within their bosom lies, imagine every eye beholds their blame. – William Shakespeare

Thieves for their robbery have authority When judges steal themselves. – William Shakespeare

Things are often spoke and seldom meant. – William Shakespeare

Things at the worst will cease or else climb upward To what they were before. – William Shakespeare

Things done well and with care exempt themselves from fear. – William Shakespeare

Things in motion sooner catch the eye than what not stirs. – William Shakespeare

Things may serve long, but not serve ever. – William Shakespeare

Things past redress are now with me past care. – William Shakespeare

Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing. – William Shakespeare

Think’st thou it honourable for a noble man Still to remember wrongs? – William Shakespeare

Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i’ the receiving earth;
For ’tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o’er times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
Admit me Chorus to this history;
Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. – William Shakespeare

This act is an ancient tale new told; And, in the last repeating, troublesome, Being urged at a time unseasonable. – William Shakespeare

This blessèd plot, this earth, this realm, this England This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, . . . This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land. – William Shakespeare

This bond is forfeit; And lawfully by this the Jew may claim A pound of flesh. – William Shakespeare

This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet. – William Shakespeare

This England never did, nor never shall, Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror. – William Shakespeare

This fellow’s wise enough to play the fool, And to do that well craves a kind of wit. – William Shakespeare

This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory. – William Shakespeare

This is a way to kill a wife with kindness. – William Shakespeare

This is no time to lend money, especially upon bare friendship without security. – William Shakespeare

This is some fellow, Who having been prais’d for bluntness, doth affect A saucy roughness and constrains the garb Quite from his nature: he can’t flatter, he! An honest mind and plain,–he must speak truth! And they will take it so; if not he’s plain. These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness Harbor more craft, and far corrupter ends, Than twenty silly, ducking observants, That stretch their duty nicely. – William Shakespeare

This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune (often the surfeits of our own behaviour) we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars: as if we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treacherous by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on. An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition on the charge of a star! – William Shakespeare

This is the fairy-land; O spite of spites!
We talk with goblins, owls and sprites. – William Shakespeare

This is the monstrosity in love, lady, that the will is infinite and the execution confined; that the desire is boundless, and the act a slave to limit. – William Shakespeare

This is the short and the long of it. – William Shakespeare

This is the third time; I hope good luck lies in odd numbers. Away; go. They say there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death. – William Shakespeare

This is the very ecstasy of love. – William Shakespeare

This is very midsummer madness. – William Shakespeare

This liberty is all that I request. – William Shakespeare

This night I hold an old accustomed feast, Whereto I have invited many a guest, Such as I love; and you among the store, One more, most welcome, makes my number more. – William Shakespeare

This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad. – William Shakespeare

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands,– This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. – William Shakespeare

This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, Which gives men stomach to digest his words With better appetite. – William Shakespeare

This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine. There is nothing more confining than the prison we don’t know we are in. – William Shakespeare

This was the most unkindest cut of all; For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, Ingratitude, more strong than traitor’s arm, Quite vanquish’d him; then burst his mighty heart. – William Shakespeare

This was the noblest Roman of them all. – William Shakespeare

This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy, this Senior Junior, giant dwarf…Cupid. – William Shakespeare

This world is not for aye, nor ’tis not strange That even our loves should with our fortunes change, For ’tis a question left us yet to prove, Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. – William Shakespeare

This world to me is like a lasting storm, Whirring me from my friends. – William Shakespeare

This, too, shall pass. – William Shakespeare

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel. – William Shakespeare

Those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country, as the behavior of the country is most mockable at the court. – William Shakespeare

Those that do teach young babes Do it with gentle means and easy tasks. – William Shakespeare

Those, that with haste will make a mighty fire, Begin it with weak straws. – William Shakespeare

Thou art a Castilian King urinal! – William Shakespeare

Thou art a slave, whom fortune’s tender arm With favour never clasp’d; but bred a dog. – William Shakespeare

Thou art all the comfort, The Gods will diet me with. – William Shakespeare

Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine, Whose weakness, married to thy stronger state, Makes me with thy strength to communicate. – William Shakespeare

Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art, As those whose beauties proudly make them cruel; For well thou know’st to my dear doting heart Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel. – William Shakespeare

Thou art most rich, being poor; Most choice, forsaken; and most lov’d, despis’d! Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon. – William Shakespeare

Thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife! – William Shakespeare

Thou art the Mars of malcontents. – William Shakespeare

Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago, If thou but think’st him wronged, and mak’st his ear A stranger to thy thoughts. – William Shakespeare

Thou ever young, fresh, lov’d, and delicate wooer, whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow. – William Shakespeare

Thou hast her, France; let her be thine, for we Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see That face of hers again. Therefore be gone Without our grace, our love, our benison. – William Shakespeare

Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school. – William Shakespeare

Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies Which busy care draws in the brains of men; Therefore thou sleep’st so sound. – William Shakespeare

Thou hast nor youth nor age But as it were an after dinner sleep Dreaming of both. – William Shakespeare

Thou know’st the first time that we smell the air we wawl and cry. When we are born we cry, that we are come to this great state of fools. – William Shakespeare

Thou knowest, winter tames man, woman, and beast. – William Shakespeare

Thou lump of foul deformity! – William Shakespeare

Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge of thine own cause. – William Shakespeare

Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe. – William Shakespeare

Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise. – William Shakespeare

Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward! Thou little valiant, great in villainy! Thou ever strong upon the stronger side! Thou Fortune’s champion, that dost never fight But where her humorous ladyship is by To teach thee safety. – William Shakespeare

Thou sodden-witted lord! thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows. – William Shakespeare

Thou speak’st like him’s untutored to repeat: Who makes the fairest show means most deceit. – William Shakespeare

Thou unfit for any place but hell. – William Shakespeare

Thou wear a lion’s hide! Doff it for shame,
And hang a calfskin on those recreant limbs.
If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not
As to thy friends; for when did friendship take
A breed of barren metal of his friend?
But lend it rather to thine enemy;
Who, if he break, thou mayest with better face
Exact the penalty. – William Shakespeare

Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter! – William Shakespeare

Though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft let by the nose with gold. – William Shakespeare

Though Fortune’s malice overthrow my state, My mind exceeds the compass of her wheel. – William Shakespeare

Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance. – William Shakespeare

Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty; for in my youth I never did apply hot and rebellious liquors in my blood; and did not, with unbashful forehead, woo the means of weakness and debility: therefore my age is as a lusty winter, frosty but kindly. – William Shakespeare

Though I perchance am vicious in my guess,
As, I confess, it is my nature’s plague
To spy into abuses, and oft my jealousy
Shapes faults that are not. – William Shakespeare

Though inclination be as sharp as will, My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent, And, like a man to double business bound, I stand in pause where I shall first begin, And both neglect. – William Shakespeare

Though it make the unskillful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve. – William Shakespeare

Though justice be thy plea consider this, that in the course of justice none of us should see salvation. – William Shakespeare

Though men can cover crimes with bold, stern looks, poor women’s faces are their own faults’ books. – William Shakespeare – William Shakespeare

Though music oft hath such a charm to make bad good, and good provoke to harm. – William Shakespeare

Though now this grained face of mine be hid In sap-consuming winter’s drizzled snow, And all the conduits of my blood froze up, Yet hath my night of life some memory, My wasting lamps some fading glimmer left, My dull deaf ears a little use to hear. – William Shakespeare

Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod. – William Shakespeare

Though she be but little, she is fierce. – William Shakespeare

Though this be madness, yet there is a method in’t. – William Shakespeare

Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death the memory be green. – William Shakespeare

Thought are but dreams till their effects are tried. – William Shakespeare

Thought is free. – William Shakespeare

Thoughts are but dreams till their effects are tried. – William Shakespeare

Thrice is he arm’d that hath his quarrel just, And he but naked, though lock’d up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. – William Shakespeare

Thrift, thrift, Horatio! The funeral bak’d meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. – William Shakespeare

Thrust your head into the public street, to gaze on Christian fools with varnish’d faces. – William Shakespeare

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. – William Shakespeare

Thus did I keep my person fresh and new, My presence, like a robe pontifical, Ne’er seen but wondered at, and so my state, Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast. – William Shakespeare

Thus I die. Thus, thus, thus. Now I am dead, Now I am fled, My soul is in the sky. Tongue, lose thy light. Moon take thy flight. Now die, die, die, die. – William Shakespeare

Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn. – William Shakespeare

Thus may poor fools Belive false teachers. – William Shakespeare

Thus sometimes hath the brightest day a cloud; And after summer evermore succeeds Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold: So cares and joys abound, as seasons fleet. – William Shakespeare

Thus we play the fool with the time and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us. – William Shakespeare

Thy food is such As hath been belch’d on by infected lungs. – William Shakespeare

Thy friendship makes us fresh. – William Shakespeare

Thy tongue Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn’d, Sung by a fair queen in a summer’s bower, With ravishing division, to her lute. – William Shakespeare

Thy wish was father to that thought. – William Shakespeare

Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought. – William Shakespeare

Thy words, I grant are bigger, for I wear not, my dagger in my mouth. – William Shakespeare

Till all grace be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace. – William Shakespeare

Till, by broad spreading it disperse to nought. – William Shakespeare

Time and the hour run through the roughest day. – William Shakespeare

Time hath a wallet at his back, wherein he puts. Alms for oblivion, a great-sized monster of ingratitudes. – William Shakespeare

Time hath not yet so dried this blood of mine, Nor age so eat up my invention, Nor fortune made such havoc of my means, Nor my bad life reft me so much of friends, But they shall find awaked in such a kind Both strength of limb and policy of mind, Ability in means, and choice of friends, To quit me of them thoroughly. – William Shakespeare

Time is a very bankrupt and owes more than he’s worth to season. Nay, he’s a thief too: have you not heard men say, That Time comes stealing on by night and day? – William Shakespeare

Time is the justice that examines all offenders. [As You Like It] – William Shakespeare

Time is the king of men. – William Shakespeare

Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides:
Who cover faults, at last shame them derides. – William Shakespeare

Time travels in divers paces with divers persons. – William Shakespeare

Time … thou ceaseless lackey to eternity. – William Shakespeare

Time’s thievish progress to eternity. – William Shakespeare

Time, whose millioned accidents creep in betwixt vows, and change decrees of kings, tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharpest intents, divert strong minds to the course of altering things. – William Shakespeare

Time’s glory is to calm contending kings,
To unmask falsehood and bring truth to light,
To stamp the seal of time in aged things,
To wake the morn and sentinel the night,
To wrong the wronger till he render right,
To ruinate proud buildings with thy hours,
And smear with dust their glittering golden towers;
To fill with worm-holes stately monuments,
To feed oblivion with decay of things,
To blot old books and alter their contents,
To pluck the quills from ancient ravens’ wings,
To dry the old oak’s sap and cherish springs,
To spoil antiquities of hammer’d steel,
And turn the giddy round of Fortune’s wheel;
To show the beldam daughters of her daughter,
To make the child a man, the man a child,
To slay the tiger that doth live by slaughter,
To tame the unicorn and lion wild,
To mock the subtle in themselves beguiled,
To cheer the ploughman with increaseful crops,
And waste huge stones with little water drops. – William Shakespeare

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm’d in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And gilded honour shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill:
Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that, to die, I leave my love alone. – William Shakespeare

Tis a blushing shame-faced spirit that mutinies in a man’s bosom. It fills a man full of obstacles. It made me once restore a purse of gold that (by chance) I found. It beggars any man that keeps it. – William Shakespeare

Tis a cruelty to load a fallen man. – William Shakespeare

Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud; but, God He knows, thy share thereof is small. – William Shakespeare

Tis better using France than trusting France; Let us be back’d with God, and with the seas, Which He hath given for fence impregnable, And with their helps only defend ourselves; In them, and in ourselves, our safety lies. – William Shakespeare

Tis but a base, ignoble mind That mounts no higher than a bird can soar. – William Shakespeare

Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens to the which our wills are gardeners. – William Shakespeare

Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God’s When mercy seasons justice. – William Shakespeare

Tis much when sceptres are in children’s hands, But more when envy breeds unkind division: There comes the ruin, there begins confusion. – William Shakespeare

Tis no sin for a man to labor in his vocation. – William Shakespeare

Tis not a year or two shows us a man: They are all but stomachs, and we all but food; They eat us hungerly, and when they are full They belch us. – William Shakespeare

Tis not the many oaths that makes the truth, But the plain single vow that is vow’d true. – William Shakespeare

Tis now the very witching time of night, when churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world. – William Shakespeare

Tis often seen Adoption strives with nature; and choice breeds A native slip to us from foreign lands. – William Shakespeare

Tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil. – William Shakespeare

Tis the times’ plague, when madmen lead the blind. – William Shakespeare

To be a well-flavored man is the gift of fortune, but to write or read comes by nature. – William Shakespeare

To be generous, guiltless, and of a free disposition is to take those things for bird-bolts that you deem cannon-bullets. – William Shakespeare

To be in anger is impiety, but who is man that is not angry? – William Shakespeare

To be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour. – William Shakespeare

To be once in doubt Is once to be resolved. – William Shakespeare

To be or not to be that is the question. Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the stings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or take up arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing them, end them. – William Shakespeare [Hamlet]

To be wise and love exceeds man’s might.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil. – William Shakespeare

To bed, to bed; sleep kill those pretty eyes, And give as soft attachment to thy senses, As infants empty of all thought. – William Shakespeare

To business that we love we rise betime, And go to it with delight. – William Shakespeare

To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first. – William Shakespeare 

To do a great right do a little wrong. – William Shakespeare

To England will I steal, and there I’ll steal. – William Shakespeare

To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength, gives in your weakness strength unto your foe. – William Shakespeare

To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength, Gives, in your weakness, strength unto your foe, And so your follies fight against yourself. Fear, and be slain–so worse can come to fight; And fight and die is death destroying death, Where fearing dying pays death servile breath. – William Shakespeare

To fear the worst oft cures the worse. – William Shakespeare

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily… is wasteful and ridiculous excess. – William Shakespeare

To go to bed after midnight is to go to bed betimes. – William Shakespeare

To have seen much and to have nothing is to have rich eyes and poor hands. – William Shakespeare

To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil! Conscience, and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation: To this point I stand,– That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes; only I’ll be reveng’d. – William Shakespeare

To hold, as ‘t were, the mirror up to nature. – William Shakespeare

To kill, I grant, is sin’s extremest gust; But, in defence, by mercy, ’tis most just. – William Shakespeare

To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof little more than a little is by much too much. – William Shakespeare

To me, fair friend, you never can be old, For as you were when first your eye I eyed, Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold Have from the forests shook three summers’ pride, Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn’d In process of the seasons have I seen, Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn’d, Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green. – William Shakespeare

To me, fair friend, you never can be old. For as you were when first your eye I eyed. Such seems your beauty still. – William Shakespeare

To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods. – William Shakespeare

To mourn a mischief that is past and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on. – William Shakespeare

To move wild laughter in the throat of death? It cannot be; it is impossible: Mirth cannot move a soul in agony. – William Shakespeare

To offend and judge are distinct offices, And of opposed natures. – William Shakespeare

To persevere In obstinate condolement is a course Of impious stubbornness: ’tis unmanly grief. – William Shakespeare

To persist in doing wrong extenuates not the wrong, but makes it much more heavy. – William Shakespeare

To pore upon a book, to seek the light of truth. – William Shakespeare

To say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days. – William Shakespeare

To say the truth, so Judas kissed his master And cried, ‘All hail!’ when as he meant all harm. – William Shakespeare

To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes, Recanting goodness, sorry ere ’tis shown; But where there is true friendship, there needs none. – William Shakespeare

To sleep! perchance to dream; ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. – William Shakespeare

To some kind of men their graces serve them but as enemies. – William Shakespeare

To speak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible disobedience. – William Shakespeare

To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder, In the most terrible and nimble stroke Of quick, cross lightning. – William Shakespeare

To sue to live, I find I seek to die; And, seeking death, find life: let it come on. – William Shakespeare

To take arms against a sea of troubles. – William Shakespeare

To the dark house and the detested wife. – William Shakespeare

To their right praise and true perfection! – William Shakespeare

To thine own self be true -; And it must follow as the night the day; Thou canst not be false to any man – William Shakespeare

To weep with them that weep doth ease some deal;
But sorrow flouted at is double death. – William Shakespeare

To whom God will, there be the victory. – William Shakespeare

To wilful men, the injuries that they themselves procure must be their schoolmasters. – William Shakespeare

To you your father should be as a god. – William Shakespeare

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. – William Shakespeare

Too much to know is to know nought but fame; And every godfather can give a name. – William Shakespeare

Travelers must be content. – William Shakespeare

Travelers never did lie, though fools at home condemn them. – William Shakespeare

Treason and murder ever kept together, As two yoke-devils sworn to either’s purpose, Working so grossly in a natural cause That admiration did not whoop at them; But thou, ‘gainst all proportion, didst bring in Wonder to wait on treason and on murder; And whatsoever cunning fiend it was That wrought upon thee so preposterously Hath got the voice in hell for excellence. – William Shakespeare

Tremble, thou wretch, That hast within thee undivulged crimes Unwhipped of justice. – William Shakespeare

Trip over love, you can get up. Fall in love and you fall forever. Anyone can catch your eye, but it takes someone special to catch your heart. Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs. – William Shakespeare

True friendship is always a sweet responsible, never an opportunity. – William Shakespeare

True hope is swift and flies with swallow’s wings; Kings it makes Gods, and meaner creatures kings. – William Shakespeare

True is it that we have seen better days. – William Shakespeare

Truly the souls of men are full of dread: Ye cannot reason almost with a man That looks not heavily and full of fear. – William Shakespeare

Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who hath any honesty in him. – William Shakespeare

Truth is truth To the end of reckoning. – William Shakespeare

Truth makes all things plain. – William Shakespeare

Truth needs no color; beauty, no pencil. – William Shakespeare

Truth will come to sight; murder cannot be hid long. – William Shakespeare

Tut, man, one fire burns out another’s burning; One pain is less’ned by another’s anguish; Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning; One desperate grief cures with another’s languish. – William Shakespeare

Twas a clever quibble. Here, a garment for it. – William Shakespeare

Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so. – William Shakespeare

Two may keep counsel putting one away! – William Shakespeare

Two starving men cannot be twice as hungry as one; but two rascals can be ten times as vicious as one. – William Shakespeare

Two women placed together makes cold weather. – William Shakespeare

Un-thread the rude eye of rebellion, and welcome home again discarded faith. – William Shakespeare

Unbidden guests Are often welcomest when they are gone. – William Shakespeare

Under the colour of commending him I have access my own love to prefer; But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy, To be corrupted with my worthless gifts. – William Shakespeare

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. – William Shakespeare

Unhand me, gentlemen,By heaven! I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me. – William Shakespeare

Unless the old adage must be verified, That beggars mounted, run their horse to death. – William Shakespeare

Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. – William Shakespeare

Unthread the bold eye of rebellion, And welcome home again discarded faith. – William Shakespeare

Upon his royal face there is no note how dread an army hath enrounded him. – William Shakespeare

Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports. – William Shakespeare

Upon thy cheek I lay this zealous kiss, as seal to the indenture of my love. – William Shakespeare

Use almost can change the stamp of nature. – William Shakespeare

Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping? – William Shakespeare

Value dwells not in particular will; It holds his estimate and dignity As well wherein ’tis precious of itself As in the prizer. – William Shakespeare

Vanity keeps persons in favor with themselves who are out of favor with all others. – William Shakespeare

Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand, Blood and revenge are hammering in my head. – William Shakespeare

Venus smiles not in a house of tears. – William Shakespeare

Verily, I swear, it is better to be lowly born, and range with humble livers in content, than to be perked up in a glistering grief, and wear a golden sorrow. – William Shakespeare

Very good orators, when they are out, they will spit; and for lovers, lacking–God warn us!–matter, the cleanliest shift is to kiss. – William Shakespeare

Vice repeated is like the wandering wind, blows dust in others’ eyes to spread itself. – William Shakespeare

Vile worm, thou wast o’erlook’d even in thy birth. – William Shakespeare

Villains, vipers, damn’d without redemption; Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man; Snakes in my heart-blood warm’d, that sing my heart; Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas. – William Shakespeare

Vini, Vici, Vidi (I came, I saw, I conquered). – Julius Caesar

Violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die; like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume. – William Shakespeare

Violent fires soon burn out themselves, small showers last long, but sudden storms are short; he tires betimes that spurs too fast. – William Shakespeare

Virtue and genuine graces in themselves speak what no words can utter. – William Shakespeare

Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous evil. Are empty trunks o’erflourished by the devil. – William Shakespeare

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. – William Shakespeare

Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes. – William Shakespeare

Virtue preserv’d from fell destruction’s blast, Led on by heaven, and crown’d with joy at last. – William Shakespeare

Virtue that transgresses is but patched with sin; and sin that amends is but patched with virtue. – William Shakespeare

Virtue’s office never breaks men’s troth. – William Shakespeare

Wait for the season when to cast good counsels upon subsiding passion. – William Shakespeare

War is no strife
To the dark house and the detested wife. – William Shakespeare

Was ever book containing such vile matter So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell In such a gorgeous palace! – William Shakespeare

Was ever woman in this humour wooed? Was ever woman in this humour won? – William Shakespeare

Watch tonight, pray tomorrow. Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to you! – William Shakespeare

We are advertis’d by our loving friends. – William Shakespeare

We are ready to try our fortunes to the last man. – William Shakespeare

We are time’s subjects, and time bids be gone. – William Shakespeare

We cannot all be masters. – William Shakespeare

We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things require a seed to start from… Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing, but all things return dissolved into their elements. – William Shakespeare

We cannot fight for love, as men may do; we shou’d be woo’d, and were not made to woo. – William Shakespeare

We do not keep the outward form of order, where there is deep disorder in the mind. – William Shakespeare

We do pray for mercy, and that same prayer doth teach us all to render the deeds of mercy. – William Shakespeare

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; be never so vile. This day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day. – William Shakespeare

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me; Shall be my brother. – William Shakespeare

We go to gain a little patch of ground that hath in it no profit but the name. – William Shakespeare

We have seen better days. – William Shakespeare

We have some salt of our youth in us.

We know what we are, but know not what we may be. – William Shakespeare

We make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion. – William Shakespeare

We make ourselves fools to disport ourselves And spend our flatteries to drink those men Upon whose age we void it up again With poisonous spite and envy. – William Shakespeare

We make trifles of terrors, Ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge, When we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear. – William Shakespeare

We must be brief when traitors brave the field. – William Shakespeare

We must be gentle now we are gentlemen. – William Shakespeare

We must every one be a man of his own fancy. – William Shakespeare 

We must follow, not force Providence. – William Shakespeare

We must not make a scarecrow of the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, And let it keep one shape till custom make it Their perch, and not their terror. – William Shakespeare

We must not stint Our necessary actions in the fear To cope malicious censurers, which ever, As rav’nous fishes, do a vessel follow That is new-trimmed, but benefit no further Than vainly longing. – William Shakespeare

We must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures. – William Shakespeare

We see which way the stream of time doth run. – William Shakespeare

We were not born to sue, but to command. – William Shakespeare

We will draw the curtain and show you the picture. – William Shakespearev

We write in water. – William Shakespeare

We’ll have a swashing and a martial outside, as many other mannish cowards have. – William Shakespeare

We, ignorant of ourselves, beg often our own harms, which the wise powers deny us for our good. – William Shakespeare

Weariness can snore upon the flint when resting sloth finds the down pillow hard. – William Shakespeare

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed The dear repose for limbs with travel tired; But then begins a journey in my head To work my mind, when body’s work’s expir’d: For then my thoughts-from far where I abide- Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee, And keep my drooping eyelids open wide, Looking on darkness which the blind do see: Save that my soul’s imaginary sight Presents thy shadow to my sightless view, Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night, Makes black night beauteous and her old face new. Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind, For thee, and for myself no quiet find. – William Shakespeare

Weed your better judgments of all opinion that grows rank in them. – William Shakespeare

Weep I cannot; But my heart bleeds. – William Shakespeare

Weep not, sweet queen, for trickling tears are vain. – William Shakespeare

Weigh’st thy words before thou givest them breath. – William Shakespeare

Welcome ever smiles, and farewell goes out sighing. – William Shakespeare

Well, honor is the subject of my story. – William Shakespeare

Well, if Fortune be a woman, she’s a good wench for this gear. – William Shakespeare

Well, while I live I’ll fear no other thing So sore as keeping safe Nerissa’s ring. – William Shakespeare

Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail, And say there is no sin but to be rich; And being rich, my virtue then shall be To say there is no vice but beggary. – William Shakespeare

Well-apparel’d April on the heel Of limping Winter treads. – William Shakespeare

Were it good To set the exact wealth of all our states All at one cast? to set so rich a main On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour? It were not good. – William Shakespeare

Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it Without a prompter. – William Shakespeare

What a deformed thief this fashion is. – William Shakespeare

What a disgrace it is to me to remember thy name. – William Shakespeare

What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And, yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me: no, nor woman neidier, though by your smiling, you seem to say so. – William Shakespeare

What a pretty thing man is when he goes in his doublet and hose and leaves off his wit! – William Shakespeare

What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind. – William Shakespeare

What are these,
So wither’d, and so wild in their attire;
That look not like the inhabitants o’ th’ earth,
And yet are on ‘t? – William Shakespeare

What art thou, thou idol ceremony?
What kind of god art thou, that suffer’st more
Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers? – William Shakespeare

What can be happier than for a man, conscious of virtuous acts, and content with liberty, to despise all human affairs? – William Shakespeare

What cannot be avoided, t’were childish weakness to lament or fear. – William Shakespeare

What e’er you are That in this desert inaccessible, Under the shade of melancholy boughs, Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time. – William Shakespeare

What early tongue so sweet saluteth me? Young son, it argues a distemper’d head So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed: Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye, And where care lodges, sleep will never lie; But where unbruised youth with unstuff’d brain Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign: – William Shakespeare

What else may hap, to time I will commit. – William Shakespeare

What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or alive? A fish: he smells like a fish; a very ancient and fishlike smell; a kind of not of the newest poor-John. A strange fish! – William Shakespeare

What I have done is yours; what I have to do is yours; being part in all I have, devoted yours. – William Shakespeare

What is aught but as ’tis valued?  – William Shakespeare

What is done cannot be now amended. – William Shakespeare

What is light, if Sylvia be not seen? What is joy if Sylvia be not by? – William Shakespeare

What is more miserable than discontent? – William Shakespeare

What is past is prologue. – William Shakespeare

What is the city but the people? – William Shakespeare

What made me love thee? let that persuade thee, there’s something extraordinary in thee. – William Shakespeare

What man dare, I dare. Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, The armed rhinoceros, or th’ Hyrcan tiger; Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves Shall never tremble. – William Shakespeare

What many men desire–that ‘many’ may be meant By the fool multitude that choose by show, Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach, Which pries not to th’ interior, but like the martlet Builds in the weather on the outward wall, Even in the force and road of casualty. – William Shakespeare

What our contempts do often hurl from us, We wish it ours again. – William Shakespeare

What say you to a piece of beef and mustard? – William Shakespeare

What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? – William Shakespeare

What should a man do but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within’s two hours. – William Shakespeare

What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? – William Shakespeare

What should we speak of When we are old as you? when we shall hear The rain and wind beat dark December? how, In this our pinching cave, shall we discourse The freezing hours away?… – William Shakespeare

What then? what rests?
Try what repentance can: what can it not?
Yet what can it when one cannot repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limed soul, that struggling to be free
Art more engag’d! – William Shakespeare

What thing, in honor, had my father lost, That need to be revived and breathed in me? – William Shakespeare

What though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care. – William Shakespeare

What valor were it, when a cur doth grin, for one to thrust his hand between his teeth, when he might spurn him with his foot away? – William Shakespeare

What we determine we often break. Purpose is but the slave to memory. – William Shakespeare

What we have we prize not to the worth
Whilse we enjoy it, but being lacked and lost,
Why, then we rack the value, then we find
The virtue that possession would not show us
Whiles it was ours. – William Shakespeare

What wouldst thou do, old man? Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak When power to flattery bows? – William Shakespeare

What! can the devil speak true? – William Shakespeare

What’s done can’t be undone. – William Shakespeare

What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed. – William Shakespeare

What’s gone and what’s past help should be past grief. – William Shakespeare

What’s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine. – William Shakespeare

What’s past and what’s to come is strew’d with husks And formless ruin of oblivion. – William Shakespeare

What’s the newest grief? Each minute tunes a new one. – William Shakespeare

What’s the news? None, my lord, but that the world’s grown honest, Then is doomsday near. – William Shakespeare

What, gone without a word? Ay, so true love should do; it cannot speak, For truth hath better deeds than words to grace it. – William Shakespeare

What, keep a week away? Seven days and nights, Eightscore-eight hours, and lovers’ absent hours More tedious than the dial eightscore times! O weary reckoning! – William Shakespeare

What, man, defy the devil. Consider, he’s an enemy to mankind. – William Shakespeare

What, no more ceremony? See, my women! Against the blown rose may they stop their nose That kneel’d unto the buds. – William Shakespeare

What? do I love her, that I desire to hear her speak again, and feast upon her eyes. – William Shakespeare

Whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise. – William Shakespeare

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet. – William Shakespeare

When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry. – William Shakespeare

When a gentlemen is disposed to swear, it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths. – William Shakespeare

When a man’s verses cannot be understood, nor a man’s good wit seconded with the forward child understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room. Truly, I would the gods had made thee poetical. – William Shakespeare

When Caesar says, ‘Do this’, it is performed. – William Shakespeare

When clouds are seen wise men put on their cloaks; When great leaves fall then winter is at hand. – William Shakespeare

When delicate and feeling souls are separated, there is not a feature in the sky, not a movement of the elements, not an aspiration of the breeze, but hints some cause for a lover’s apprehension. – William Shakespeare

When faced with a sea of troubles, take action, and in so doing end it. – William Shakespeare

When Fortune means to men most good, She looks upon them with a threatening eye. – William Shakespeare

When griping grief the heart doth wound, and doleful dumps the mind oppress, then music, with her silver sound, with speedy help doth lend redress. – William Shakespeare

When he is best, he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast. – William Shakespeare

When he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun. – William Shakespeare

When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o’erflow? If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad, Threatening the welkin with his big-swollen face? – William Shakespeare

When holy and devout religious men Are at their beads, ’tis hard to draw them thence So sweet is zealous contemplation. – William Shakespeare

When I was at home, I was in a better place; but travellers must be content. – William Shakespeare

When law can do no right, Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong. – William Shakespeare

When love begins to sicken and decay it uses an enforced ceremony. – William Shakespeare [Julius Caesar]

When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know she lies. – William Shakespeare

When once our grace we have forgot, Nothing goes right. – William Shakespeare

When our actions do not, our fears make us traitors. – William Shakespeare

When remedies are past, the griefs are ended By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended. – William Shakespeare

When rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they will. – William Shakespeare

When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions. – William Shakespeare

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man. – William Shakespeare

When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul, Lends the tongue vows. – William Shakespeare

When the sun shines let foolish gnats make sport, But creep in crannies when he hides his beams. – William Shakespeare

When we are born, we cry, that we are come to this great stage of fools. – William Shakespeare

When we mean to build, We first survey the plot, then draw the model; And when we see the figure of the house, Then must we rate the cost of the erection. – William Shakespeare

When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain. – William Shakespeare

When workmen strive to do better than well, they do confound their skill in covetousness. – William Shakespeare

When you do dance, I wish you a wave o’ the sea, that you might ever do nothing but that. – William Shakespeare

When you fear a foe, fear crushes your strength; and this weakness gives strength to your opponents. – William Shakespeare

Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget’st so long / To speak of that which gives thee all thy might? – William Shakespeare

Where every something, being blent together turns to a wild of nothing. – William Shakespeare

Where I could not be honest, I never yet was valiant. – William Shakespeare

Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear; When little fears grow great, great love grows there. – William Shakespeare

Where the greater malady is fixed, The lesser is scarce felt. – William Shakespeare

Whereto serves mercy But to confront the visage of offense? – William Shakespeare

Wherever sorrow is, relief would be:
If you do sorrow at my grief in love,
By giving love, your sorrow and my grief were both extermin’d. – William Shakespeare

Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change. – William Shakespeare

While thou livest keep a good tongue in thy head. – William Shakespeare

While we lie tumbling in the hay. – William Shakespeare

While you live tell the truth and shame the devil. – William Shakespeare

Who alone suffers suffers most i’ th’ mind, Leaving free things and happy shows behind; But then the mind much sufferance doth o’erskip When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship. – William Shakespeare

Who are the violets now That strew the lap of the new-come spring? – William Shakespeare

Who can be patient in extremes? – William Shakespeare [Henry Vi]

Who can control his fate? – William Shakespeare

Who can say more than this rich praise, that you alone are you. – William Shakespeare

Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known? – William Shakespeare

Who has a book of all that monarchs do, He’s more secure to keep it shut than shown; For vice repeated is like the wand’ring wind, Blows dust in others’ eye, to spread itself; And yet the end of all is bought thus dear, The breath is gone, and the sore eyes see clear To stop the air would hurt them. – William Shakespeare

Who is here so vile that will not love his country? – William Shakespeare

Who soars too near the sun, with golden wings, melts them. – William Shakespeare

Who steals my purse steals trash: ’tis something, nothin’, ’twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands. But he who filches from me my good name, robs me of that which not enriches him and makes me poor indeed. – William Shakespeare

Who wooed in haste, and means to wed at leisure. – William Shakespeare

Who would be so mocked with glory, or to live But in a dream of friendship, To have his pomp and all what state compounds But only painted, like his varnished friends? – William Shakespeare

Why does my blood thus muster to my heart, Making both it unable for itself, And dispossessing all my other parts Of necessary fitness? – William Shakespeare

Why should honor outlive honestly? – William Shakespeare [Orthello]

Why so large a cost, having so short a lease, does thou upon your fading mansion spend? – William Shakespeare

Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing? – William Shakespeare

Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness, serious vanity, Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms, Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel I, that feel no love in this. – William Shakespeare

Why this is very midsummer madness. – William Shakespeare

Why, all delights are vain, but that most vain Which, with pain purchased, doth inherit pain: As, painfully to pore upon a book, To seek the light of truth, which truth the while Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look. – William Shakespeare

Why, headstrong liberty is lashed with woe. There’s nothing situate under heaven’s eye But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky. – William Shakespeare

Why, then, the world’s mine oyster, Which I with sword will open. – William Shakespeare

Why, this hath not a finger’s dignity. – William Shakespeare

Why, thou deboshed fish thou…Wilt thou tell a monstrous lie, being but half a fish and half a monster? – William Shakespeare

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

Why, who cries out on pride that can therein tax any private party? Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea till the weary very means do ebb? – William Shakespeare

Will Fortune never come with both hands full, But write her fair words still in foulest terms? – William Shakespeare

Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? – William Shakespeare

Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep. – William Shakespeare

Winter’s not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way. – William Shakespeare

Winter, which, being full of care, makes summer’s welcome thrice more wish’d, more rare. – William Shakespeare

Wisdom and fortune combating together, If that the former dare but what it can, No chance may shake it. – William Shakespeare

Wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it. – William Shakespeare

Wise men ne’er sit and wail their woes, but presently prevent the ways to wail. – William Shakespeare

Wisely weigh our sorrow with our comfort. – William Shakespeare

Wisely, and slow; they stumble that run fast. – William Shakespeare

Wisely, I say, I am a bachelor. – William Shakespeare

Wish chastely, and love dearly. – William Shakespeare

Wishers were ever fools. – William Shakespeare

With caution judge of probability. Things deemed unlikely, e’en impossible, experience oft hath proved to be true. – William Shakespeare

With love’s light wings did I o’er-perch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out. – William Shakespeare

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come. – William Shakespeare [Merchant Of Venice]

With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage. – William Shakespeare

With this special observance, that you o’erstep not the modesty of nature. for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature. – William Shakespeare

Within the book and volume of thy brain… – William Shakespeare

Woe to that land that’s governed by a child. – William Shakespeare

Wolves and bears, they say, casting their savagery aside, have done like offices of pity. – William Shakespeare

Women are angels, wooing: Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing: That she beloved knows naught, that knows not this– Men prize the thing ungained more than it is. – William Shakespeare

Women are as roses, whose fair flower, being once displayed, doth fall that very hour. – William Shakespeare

Women are not In their best fortunes strong, but want will perjure the ne’er-touched vestal. – William Shakespeare

Women being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the walls. – William Shakespeare

Women may fall when there’s no strength in men. – William Shakespeare

Women speak two languages – one of which is verbal. – William Shakespeare

Women’s weapons, water-drops. – William Shakespeare

Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find. – William Shakespeare

Words are grown so false, I am loath to prove reason with them. – William Shakespeare

Words pay no debts, give her deeds. – William Shakespeare

Words pay no debts. – William Shakespeare

Words without thoughts never to heaven go. – William Shakespeare

Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love’s full sacrifice, He offers in another’s enterprise; But more in Troilus thousand-fold I see Than in the glass of Pandar’s praise may be, Yet hold I off. – William Shakespeare

Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart. – William Shakespeare

Would I were dead, if God’s good will were so, For what is in this world but grief and woe? – William Shakespeare

Would I were in an alehouse in London. – William Shakespeare

Would it not grieve a woman to be over-mastered by a piece of valiant dust? to make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marle? – William Shakespeare

Would the cook were o’ my mind! – William Shakespeare

Yea from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records. – William Shakespeare

Yet do I fear thy nature It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness. – William Shakespeare

Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell: It fell upon a little western flower, Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound, And maidens call it love-in-idleness. – William Shakespeare

Yet nor the lays of birds nor the sweet smell Of different flowers in odour and in hue Could make me any summer’s story tell, Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew; Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white, Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose; They were but sweet, but figures of delight, Drawn after you, you pattern of all those. – William Shakespeare

Yet writers say, as in the sweetest bud The eating canter dwells, so eating love Inhabits in the finest wits of all. – William Shakespeare

Yet, for I know thou art religious And hast a thing within thee called conscience, With twenty popish tricks and ceremonies Which I have seen thee careful to observe, Therefore I urge thy oath; for that I know An idiot holds his bauble for a god And keeps the oath which by that god he swears, To that I’ll urge him: therefore thou shalt vow By that same god, what god soe’er it be, That thou adorest and hast in reverence, To save my boy, to nourish and bring him up, Or else I will discover naught to thee. – William Shakespeare

Yon grey lines That fret the clouds are messengers of day. – William Shakespeare

Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much; such men are dangerous. – William Shakespeare [Julius Caesar]

You are a tedious fool. – William Shakespeare

You are made Rather to wonder at the things you hear Than to work any. – William Shakespeare

You are not wood, you are not stones, but men; And being men, hearing the will of Caesar, It will inflame you, it will make you mad. – William Shakespeare

You are strangely troublesome. – William Shakespeare

You are thought here to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch, therefore bear you the lantern. – William Shakespeare

You are thought here to the most senseless and fit man for the job. – William Shakespeare

You are yoked with a lamb, That carries anger as the flint bears fire; Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spank, And straight is cold again. – William Shakespeare

You cannot call it love, for at your age the heyday in the blood is tame. – William Shakespeare

You cannot make gross sins look clear: To revenge is no valour, but to bear. – William Shakespeare

You cram these words into mine ears against the stomach of my sense. – William Shakespeare

You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant; But yet you draw not iron, for my heart Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw, And I shall have no power to follow you. – William Shakespeare

You have but mistook me all the while… I live by bread like you, taste grief, feel want, need friends. Conditioned thus how can you call me king? – William Shakespeare

You have her father’s love, Demetrius; Let me have Hermia’s: do you marry him! – William Shakespeare

You have lost no reputation at all, unless you repute yourself such a loser. – William Shakespeare

You have stayed me in a happy hour. – William Shakespeare

You know That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard, And after scandal them. – William Shakespeare

You know that love Will creep in service where it cannot go. – William Shakespeare

You know who you are, but know not who you could be. – William Shakespeare

You lack the season of all natures, sleep. – William Shakespeare

You must confine yourself within the modest limits of order. – William Shakespeare

You peasant swain! You whoreson malt-horse drudge! – William Shakespeare

You shall more command with years than with your weapons. – William Shakespeare

You take my house when you do take the prop That doth sustain my house; you take my life When you do take the means whereby I live. – William Shakespeare

You undergo too strict a paradox, Striving to make an ugly deed look fair. – William Shakespeare

Young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes. – William Shakespeare

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth, And thus do we of wisdom and of reach, With windlasses and with assays of bias, By indirections find directions out. – William Shakespeare

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth. – William Shakespeare

Your date is better in your pie and your porridge than in your cheek. – William Shakespeare

Your face is a book, where men may read strange matters. – William Shakespeare

Your heart’s desires be with you. – William Shakespeare

Your hearts are mighty, your skins are whole. – William Shakespeare

Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, have yet some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time. – William Shakespeare

Your old virginity is like one of our French withered pears: it looks ill, it eats drily. – William Shakespeare

Your praises will become your wages. – William Shakespeare

Your wisdom is consum’d in confidence. Do not go forth to-day. – William Shakespeare

Your worm is your only emperor for diet; we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. – William Shakespeare

Youth is full of sport, age’s breath is short; youth is nimble, age is lame; Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold; Youth is wild, and age is tame.

Youth to itself rebels, though none else near. – William Shakespeare

Zounds! I was never so bethumped with words since I first called my brother’s father dad. – William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare Quotes

William Shakespeare Quotes

William Shakespeare Quotes from Wikiquote

Please note: these quotes are from Shakespeare’s works, not his actual words.

  • Beauty itself doth of itself persuade
    The eyes of men without an orator.

    • The Rape of Lucrece (1594).
  • Time’s glory is to calm contending kings,
    To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light.

    • The Rape of Lucrece.
  • That deep torture may be called a hell,
    When more is felt than one hath power to tell.

    • The Rape of Lucrece.
  • On a day — alack the day! —
    Love, whose month is ever May,
    Spied a blossom passing fair
    Playing in the wanton air

    • Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music, II. Not to be confused with The Sonnets; this poem is not a sonnet
  • Crabbed age and youth cannot live together:
    Youth is full of pleasure, age is full of care

    • The Passionate Pilgrim: A Madrigal; there is some doubt about the authorship of this.
  • I gyve unto my wief my second best bed with the furniture
    • Shakespeare’s will
  • Good frend for Jesus sake forbeare
    To digg the dust encloased heare
    Blese be the man that spares these stones
    And curst be he that moves my bones

    • Shakespeare’s epitaph
  • Now is the winter of our discontent
    Made glorious summer by this sun of York.

    • Richard, Act I, scene i.
  • Off with his head!
    • Richard, Act III, scene iv.
  • A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!
    • Richard, Act V, scene iv.
  • What light through yonder window breaks?
    • Romeo, Act II, scene ii.
  • What’s in a name? That which we call a rose,
    By any other name would smell as sweet.

    • Juliet, Act II, scene ii.
  • O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
    • Juliet, Act II, scene ii.
  • The course of true love never did run smooth.
    • Lysander, Act I, scene i.
  • Lord, what fools these mortals be!
    • Puck, Act III, scene ii.
  • Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
    And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind.

    • Helena, Act I, scene i.
  • If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces.
    • Portia, Act I, scene ii.
  • All that glisters is not gold.
    • Prince of Morocco, reading Portia’s note, Act II, scene vii; this is the source of the popular paraphrase “All that glitters is not gold.”
  • I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal’d by the same means, warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
    • Shylock, Act III, scene i.
  • The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life.
    • Falstaff, Act V, scene iv.
  • A man can die but once.
    • Feeble, Act III, scene ii.
  • Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
    • King Henry, Act III, scene i.
  • As merry as the day is long.
    • Beatrice, Act II, scene i.
  • Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
    Men were deceivers ever;
    One foot in sea, and one on shore,
    To one thing constant never.

    • Balthazar, Act II, scene iii.
  • Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
    • Hero, Act III, scene i.
  • Men at some time are masters of their fates:
    The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
    But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

    • Cassius, Act I, scene ii.
  • Cowards die many times before their deaths;
    The valiant never taste of death but once.

    • Caesar, Act II, scene ii.
  • Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
    I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
    The evil that men do lives after them;
    The good is oft interred with their bones.

    • Antony, Act III, scene ii.
  • All the world’s a stage,
    And all the men and women merely players:
    They have their exits and their entrances;
    And one man in his time plays many parts.

    • Jaques, Act II, scene vii.
  • ‘The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.’
    • Touchstone, Act V, scene i
  • Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
    For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
    And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
    This above all: to thine ownself be true.
    And it must follow, as the night the day,
    Thou canst not then be false to any man.

    • Polonius, Act I, scene iii.
  • Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
    • Polonius, Act I, scene iii.
  • The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
    That ever I was born to set it right!

    • Hamlet, Act I, scene v.
  • There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
    • Hamlet, Act II, scene ii.
  • What a piece of work is a man!
    How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty!
    In form and moving how express and admirable!
    In action how like an angel,
    in apprehension how like a god!

    • Hamlet, Act II, scene ii.
  • To be or not to be, that is the question.
    • Hamlet, Act III, scene i.
  • If music be the food of love, play on.
    • Orsino, Act I, scene i.
  • Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.
    • Malvolio, Act II, scene v.
  • Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving.
    • Iago, Act II, scene iii.
  • Of one that lov’d not wisely but too well.
    • Othello, Act V, scene ii.
  • We have seen better days.
    • Flavius, Act IV, scene ii.
  • Nothing can come of nothing.
    • Lear, Act I, scene i.
  • How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
    To have a thankless child!

    • Lear, Act I, scene iv.
  • I am a man,
    More sinn’d against than sinning.

    • Lear, Act III, scene ii.
  • The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,
    Burnt on the water.

    • Enobarbus, Act II, scene ii.
  • Come what come may,
    Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

    • Macbeth, Act I, scene iii.
  • Is this a dagger which I see before me,
    The handle toward my hand?

    • Macbeth, Act II, scene i.
  • Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
    Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
    To the last syllable of recorded time;
    And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
    The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
    Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
    That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
    And then is heard no more. It is a tale
    Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
    Signifying nothing.

    • Macbeth, Act V, scene v.
  • Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
    Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
    Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
    And summer’s lease hath all too short a date

    • XVIII
  • So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
    So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

    • XVIII
  • Let me not to the marriage of true minds
    Admit impediments.

    • CXVI
  • Golden lads and girls all must,
    As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

    • Guiderius, Act IV, scene ii.
  • Full fathom five thy father lies;
    Of his bones are coral made;
    Those are pearls that were his eyes;
    Nothing of him that doth fade,
    But doth suffer a sea-change
    Into something rich and strange.

    • Ariel, Act I, scene ii.
  • Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.
    • Trinculo, Act II, scene ii.
  • We are such stuff
    As dreams are made on; and our little life
    Is rounded with a sleep.

    • Prospero, Act IV, scene i.

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