Top 50 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Quotes And EXPLANATIONS!

“To be, or not to be? That is the question!”

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor. Shakespeare was born in the 1500’s, but his plays are just as popular today as they were when he was alive! 

Some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays include:

• Romeo And Juliet
• Hamlet
• The Tempest
• Twelfth Night
• Macbeth

…And many more.

Shakespeare was one of the best English writers of all time, and it’s easy to see why. His plays feature timeless quotes about life, love, relationships, and more. 

Whether you’re interested in deep philosophical quotes about life, funny Shakespeare quotes, or hot and heavy Shakespeare quotes about love and romance, we’ve got you covered! 

Without further ado, here are the best William Shakespeare quotes with explanations!

Best William Shakespeare Quotes About Life

1. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” -William Shakespeare

This quote from “As You Like It” compares life to a play, suggesting that each person has a role to play in the grand drama of existence.

2. “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” -William Shakespeare

From “Hamlet”, this quote poses the ultimate question of existence: whether it is better to endure the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to end one’s life.

3. “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

This quote from “Hamlet” emphasizes the importance of being true to oneself in order to be true to others.

4. “If music be the food of love, play on.” -William Shakespeare

From “Twelfth Night”, this quote expresses the power of music to evoke and enhance love.

5. “All that glitters is not gold.” -William Shakespeare

From “The Merchant of Venice”, this quote warns against being deceived by outward appearances.

6. “The course of true love never did run smooth.” -William Shakespeare

From “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, this quote acknowledges the challenges and obstacles that love can present.

7. “Brevity is the soul of wit.” -William Shakespeare

From “Hamlet”, this quote emphasizes the power of concise and to-the-point communication.

8. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” -William Shakespeare

From “Romeo and Juliet”, this quote suggests that a name does not define the essence of a person or thing.

9. “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” -William Shakespeare

From “All’s Well That Ends Well”, this quote encourages a balanced approach to relationships, prioritizing love, but also caution and integrity.

10. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” -William Shakespeare

From “Hamlet”, this quote suggests that our perceptions and beliefs shape our reality, and things themselves do not have an inherent moral value.

11. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” -William Shakespeare

From “Julius Caesar”, this quote suggests that our own flaws and limitations, rather than fate or destiny, are responsible for our actions and outcomes.

12. “The better part of valor is discretion.” -William Shakespeare

From “Henry IV, Part 1”, this quote suggests that sometimes it is better to exercise caution and avoid unnecessary risks.

13. “This above all: to thine own self be true.” -William Shakespeare

From “Hamlet”, this quote reinforces the importance of authenticity and self-honesty in one’s thoughts and actions.

14. “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” -William Shakespeare

From “Julius Caesar”, this quote suggests that fear can consume and limit us, while bravery allows us to live life fully.

15. “All for love, and nothing for reward.” -William Shakespeare

From “Venus and Adonis”, this quote emphasizes the purity and selflessness of true love.

16. “The quality of mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.” -William Shakespeare

From “The Merchant of Venice”, this quote extols the virtues of forgiveness and compassion.

17. “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.” -William Shakespeare

From “King Lear”, this quote speaks to the pain and disappointment of ungrateful offspring.

18. “The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.” -William Shakespeare

From “Hamlet”, this quote suggests that ambition and striving can be

19. “Though she be but little, she is fierce.” -William Shakespeare

From “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, this quote speaks to the power and strength of women, regardless of their size or status.

20. “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” -William Shakespeare

From “Hamlet”, this quote suggests that people who overemphasize their innocence or virtue may be hiding something.

21. “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” -William Shakespeare

From “Julius Caesar”, this quote suggests that our actions and choices, rather than cosmic forces, determine our fate.

22. “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” -William Shakespeare

From “The Tempest”, this quote suggests that evil exists within human nature and society, rather than just in a spiritual realm.

23. “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

From “Henry V”, this quote suggests that even in the face of death, one can still serve a noble purpose.

24. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” -William Shakespeare

From “Hamlet”, this quote suggests that the universe is more mysterious and complex than human understanding can comprehend.

25. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” -William Shakespeare

From “As You Like It”, this quote suggests that life is like a play, and each person has a role to play in the grand drama of existence.

26. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.” -William Shakespeare

From “Hamlet”, this quote emphasizes the risks and complications of borrowing and lending money.

27. “To be wise and love, exceeds man’s might.” -William Shakespeare

From “Troilus and Cressida”, this quote acknowledges the challenges and contradictions inherent in pursuing both love and wisdom.

28. “All things are ready, if our minds be so.” -William Shakespeare

From “Henry V”, this quote suggests that the power of the mind and will can overcome any obstacle.

29. “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”  -William Shakespeare

From “All’s Well That Ends Well”, this quote acknowledges the inherent complexity and duality of human experience.

30. “I have no other but a woman’s reason; I think him so because I think him so.” -William Shakespeare

From “Two Gentlemen of Verona”, this quote suggests the fluid and subjective nature of perception and belief.

31. “Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.” -William Shakespeare

From “Twelfth Night”, this quote suggests that intelligence and humor are not the same thing, and one should strive for both.

32. “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” -William Shakespeare

From “Twelfth Night”, this quote suggests that greatness can come from many sources, including innate talent, hard work, and unexpected circumstances.

33. “The love of heaven makes one heavenly.” -William Shakespeare

From “Measure for Measure”, this quote suggests that the power of love can transform and elevate the human spirit.

34. “All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity.” -William Shakespeare

From “Hamlet”, this quote acknowledges the inevitability of death and the cyclical nature of life.

35. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” -William Shakespeare

From “Hamlet”, this quote suggests that the human potential and destiny are mysterious and uncertain.

36. “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” -William Shakespeare

From “Henry VI, Part 2”, this quote suggests that lawyers play a crucial role in life, politics, and more.

37. “Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.” -William Shakespeare

From “Romeo and Juliet”, this quote suggests that patience and caution are important in achieving success and avoiding mistakes.

38. “To do a great right, do a little wrong.” -William Shakespeare

From “The Merchant of Venice”, this quote suggests that sometimes, in the pursuit of justice, one may need to break rules or norms.

39. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” -William Shakespeare

From “As You Like It”, this quote suggests that life is a temporary and fleeting experience, and everyone has a part to play.

40. “Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!” -William Shakespeare

From “Hamlet”, this quote is a farewell to a beloved character who has passed away, suggesting the comfort and peace that can come in death.

41. “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.” -William Shakespeare

From “Hamlet”, this quote suggests that life’s challenges often come in waves and can be overwhelming.

42. “I bear a charmed life.” -William Shakespeare

From “Macbeth”, this quote suggests that a person’s fate or destiny may be protected by supernatural forces.

43. “The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right!” -William Shakespeare

From “Hamlet”, this quote suggests the frustration and burden of feeling responsible for fixing the broken world.

44. “What’s done cannot be undone.” -William Shakespeare

From “Macbeth”, this quote suggests that some actions have irreversible consequences.

45. “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.” -William Shakespeare

From “Julius Caesar”, this quote suggests that timing and opportunity can be crucial in achieving success.

46. “The game is up.” -William Shakespeare

From “Cymbeline”, this quote suggests that a plan or scheme has been revealed or thwarted.

47. “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” -William Shakespeare

From “As You Like It”, this quote suggests that humility and self-awareness are important for gaining true wisdom.

48. “My only love sprung from my only hate!” -William Shakespeare

From “Romeo and Juliet”, this quote suggests the tragic irony of two people falling in love despite being from rival families.

49. “All the infections that the sun sucks up from bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him by inchmeal a disease!” -William Shakespeare

From “The Tempest”, this quote suggests the power of nature to corrupt and transform, even the most powerful.

50. “This above all: to thine own self be true.” -William Shakespeare

From “Hamlet”, this quote emphasizes the importance of being authentic and true to oneself, regardless of external pressures or expectations.

Best William Shakespeare Quotes About Life

• “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.” -William Shakespeare
• “Get thee to a nunnery.” -William Shakespeare
• “Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.” -William Shakespeare
• “It is silliness to live when to live is torment; and then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician.” -William Shakespeare
• “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.” -William Shakespeare
• “O excellent! I love long life better than figs.” -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.” -William Shakespeare
• “We are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” -William Shakespeare
• “Now is the winter of our discontent.” -William Shakespeare
• “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?” -William Shakespeare
• “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

Best William Shakespeare Quotes About Love

• “Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes; Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.” -William Shakespeare
• “Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake- its everything except what it is!” -William Shakespeare
• “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.”
• “One fairer than my love? the all-seeing sun Ne’er saw her match since first the world begun.” -William Shakespeare
• “Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar but never doubt thy love.” -William Shakespeare
• “I loved Ophelia: Forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum.” -William Shakespeare
• “Love is begun by time, And time qualifies the spark and fire of it.” -William Shakespeare
• “I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, To die upon the hand I love so well.” -William Shakespeare
• “To say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.” -William Shakespeare
• “Love’s stories written in love’s richest books. To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes.” -William Shakespeare
• “I do love nothing in the world so well as you—is not that strange?” -William Shakespeare
• “When you depart from me sorrow abides, and happiness takes his leave.” -William Shakespeare
• “Silence is the perfectest herald of joy. I were but little happy if I could say how much.—Lady, as you are mine, I am yours. I give away myself for you and dote upon the exchange.” -William Shakespeare
• “Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues.” -William Shakespeare
• “Love me! Why, it must be requited.” -William Shakespeare
• “No sooner met but they looked, no sooner looked but they loved, no sooner loved, but they sighed, no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason. No sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy; And in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage.” -William Shakespeare
• “To be wise, and love, Exceeds man’s might.” -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
• “They do not love that do not show their love.” -William Shakespeare
• “Excellent wetch! Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee, and when I love thee not, chaos is come again.” -William Shakespeare
• “For ever and a day.” -William Shakespeare
• “In thy face I see the map of honour, truth and loyalty.” -William Shakespeare
• “But are you so much in love as your rhymes speak? Neither rhyme nor reason can express how much.” -William Shakespeare
• “Sweet, above thought I love thee.” -William Shakespeare
• “Love is a spirit all compact of fire.” -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
• “Never durst poet touch a pen to write Until his ink were tempered with Love’s sighs.” -William Shakespeare
• “What’s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.” -William Shakespeare
• “Let’s go hand in hand, not one before another.” -William Shakespeare
• “Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?” -William Shakespeare
• “For where thou art, there is the world itself, and where though art not, desolation.” -William Shakespeare
• “I love you more than words can wield the matter, Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty.” -William Shakespeare
• “Those lines that I before have writ do lie, Ev’n those that said I could not love you dearer. Yet then my judgment knew no reason why My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer.” -William Shakespeare
• “If music be the food of love, play on.” -William Shakespeare
• “Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.”  -William Shakespeare
• “Love is like a child, That longs for everything it can come by.” -William Shakespeare
• “For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, That then I scorn to change my state with kings.” -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.” -William Shakespeare
• “Thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings.” -William Shakespeare
• “Tell me for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?” -William Shakespeare
• “But love is blind, and lovers cannot see The pretty follies that themselves commit.” -William Shakespeare
• “Lovers ever run before the clock.” -William Shakespeare
• “One half of me is yours, the other half yours—Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours, And so all yours.” -William Shakespeare
• “Love goes by haps; Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.” -William Shakespeare
• “I will not be sworn but love may transform me to an oyster.” -William Shakespeare
• “She will die if you love her not, And she will die ere she might make her love known.” -William Shakespeare
• “In my opinion, love and quiet simplicity if they speak less, they say more.” -William Shakespeare
• “I love thee. By my life, I do.” -William Shakespeare
• “Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear; when little fears grow great, great love grows there.” -William Shakespeare
• “The course of true love never did run smooth.” -William Shakespeare
• “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” -William Shakespeare
• “Cupid is a knavish lad, thus to make females mad.” -William Shakespeare

Best William Shakespeare Quotes From Plays

• “Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.” -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.” -William Shakespeare
• “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.” -William Shakespeare
• “My salad days, When I was green in judgment: cold in blood, To say as I said then! But, come, away; Get me ink and paper: He shall have every day a several greeting, Or I’ll unpeople Egypt.” -William Shakespeare
• “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.” -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.” -William Shakespeare
• “When you depart from me sorrow abides, and happiness takes his leave.” -William Shakespeare
• “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” -William Shakespeare
• “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close the wall up with our English dead!” -William Shakespeare
• “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” -William Shakespeare
• “Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.” -William Shakespeare

Best William Shakespeare Quotes About Happiness

• “There’s little of the melancholy element in her, my lord: she is never sad but when she sleeps; and not ever sad then; for I have heard my daughter say, she hath often dreamt of unhappiness, and waked herself with laughing.” -William Shakespeare
• “Prepare for mirth, for mirth becomes a feast.” -William Shakespeare
• “How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping.” -William Shakespeare
• “This told, I joy; but then no longer glad, I send them back again and straight grow sad.” -William Shakespeare
• “If this be so, the gods do mean to strike me To death with mortal joy.” -William Shakespeare
• “Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief, Burst smilingly.” -William Shakespeare
• “As little joy, my lord, as you suppose You should enjoy were you this country’s king, As little joy you may suppose in me That I enjoy, being the Queen thereof.” -William Shakespeare
• “Think with thyself How more unfortunate than all living women Are we come hither; since that thy sight, which should Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts, Constrains them weep and shake with fear and sorrow, Making the mother, wife, and child, to see The son, the husband, and the father, tearing His country’s bowels out.” -William Shakespeare
• “Bring me a constant woman to her husband, One that ne’er dream’d a joy beyond his pleasure, And to that woman, when she has done most, Yet will I add an honour-a great patience.” -William Shakespeare
• “How sweet is love itself possess’d, When but love’s shadows are so rich in joy!”
• “Lay aside life-harming heaviness, And entertain a cheerful disposition.” -William Shakespeare
• “Silence is the perfectest herald of joy I were but little happy, if I could say how much.” -William Shakespeare
• “Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.” -William Shakespeare
• “But here’s the joy my friend and I are one… Then she loves but me alone.” -William Shakespeare
• “My life, my joy, my food, my ail the world!” -William Shakespeare
• “With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” -William Shakespeare
• “I wish you all the joy that you can wish.” -William Shakespeare
• “My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy.” -William Shakespeare
• “Let’s go hand in hand, not one before another.” -William Shakespeare
• “The treasury of everlasting joy!” -William Shakespeare

Best William Shakespeare Quotes About Friendship

• “Friendship is constant in all other things / Save in the office and affairs of love.” -William Shakespeare
• “My good friends, I’ll leave you till night.” -William Shakespeare
• “If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not / As to thy friends; for when did friendship take / A breed for barren metal of his friend?” -William Shakespeare
• “To Milan let me hear from thee by letters / Of thy success in love, and what news else / Betideth here in absence of thy friend; / And I likewise will visit thee with mine.” -William Shakespeare
• “Madam, you wrong the King’s love with these fears; / Your hopes and friends are infinite.” -William Shakespeare
• “I count myself in nothing else so happy / As in a soul remembering my good friends.” -William Shakespeare
• “A noble shalt thou have, and present pay; / And liquor likewise will I give to thee, / And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood.” -William Shakespeare
• “Good my friends, consider / You are my guests.” -William Shakespeare
• “I rais’d him, and I pawn’d / Mine honour for his truth; who being so heighten’d, / He watered his new plants with dews of flattery, / Seducing so my friends; and to this end / He bow’d his nature, never known.” -William Shakespeare
• To envious and calumniating time.” -William Shakespeare
• “There is a devil / haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat man; a tun of man is thy companion.”  -William Shakespeare
• “Words are easy, like the wind; faithful friends are hard to find.” -William Shakespeare
• “In truth, sir, and she is pretty, and honest, and gentle; and one that is your friend, I can tell you that by the way; I praise heaven for it.” -William Shakespeare
• “My way of life / Is fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf, / And that which should accompany old age, / As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have; but in their stead, / Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath, / Which the poor heart would fain deny and dare not.” -William Shakespeare
• “Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.” -William Shakespeare
• “That which I would discover / The law of friendship bids me to conceal.” -William Shakespeare
• “I thank thee, gentle Percy; and be sure / I count myself in nothing else so happy / As in a soul rememb’ring my good friends; / And as my fortune ripens with thy love, / It shall be still thy true love’s recompense.” -William Shakespeare
• “Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, / Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel.” -William Shakespeare
• “Keep thy friend, under thy own life’s key.” -William Shakespeare
• “But where there is true friendship, there needs none.” -William Shakespeare
• “Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love Accompany your hearts!” -William Shakespeare
• “A friend should bear his friend’s infirmities.” -William Shakespeare
• “All friends shall taste / The wages of their virtue, and all foes / The cup of their deservings.” -William Shakespeare
• “For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.” -William Shakespeare
• “Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all, to envious and calumniating time.” -William Shakespeare
• “Thy friendship makes us fresh.” -William Shakespeare
• “I desire you in friendship, and I will one way or other make you amends.” -William Shakespeare
• “Thou common friend, that’s without faith or love- / For such is a friend now; treacherous man, / Thou hast beguil’d my hopes; nought but mine eye Could have persuaded me.” -William Shakespeare
• “To me, fair friend, you never can be old.” -William Shakespeare
• “If any man challenge this, he / is a friend to Alencon and an enemy to our person; if thou / encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou dost me love.” -William Shakespeare
• “That I will here dismiss my loving friends, / And to my fortunes and the people’s favour / Commit my cause in balance to be weigh’d.” -William Shakespeare
• “Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.” -William Shakespeare
• “There is flattery in friendship.” -William Shakespeare

Best William Shakespeare Quotes On Life Lessons

• “To do a great right, do a little wrong.” -William Shakespeare
• “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” -William Shakespeare
• “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” -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
• “Desire of having is the sin of covetousness.” -William Shakespeare
• “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!” -William Shakespeare
• “Let life be short; else shame will be too long.” -William Shakespeare
• “Virtue itself ‘scapes not calumnious strokes.” -William Shakespeare
• “Ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.” -William Shakespeare
• “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” -William Shakespeare
• “Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall. Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” -William Shakespeare
• “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” -William Shakespeare
• “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
• “If money go before, all ways do lie open.” -William Shakespeare
• “Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.” -William Shakespeare
• “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” -William Shakespeare
• “When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.” -William Shakespeare
• “False face must hide what the false heart doth know.” -William Shakespeare
• “Love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds.” -William Shakespeare
• “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” -William Shakespeare
• “Thy overflow of good converts to bad.” -William Shakespeare
• “The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.” -William Shakespeare
• “Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious-dear than life.” -William Shakespeare

Best William Shakespeare Quotes About Time

• “A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.” -William Shakespeare
• “Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends.” -William Shakespeare
• “Time’s the king of men; he’s both their parent, and he is their grave, and gives them what he will, not what they crave.” -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
• “We have seen better days.” -William Shakespeare
• “Much rain wears the marble.” -William Shakespeare
• “Make use of time, let not advantage slip; Beauty within itself should not be wasted: Fair flowers that are not gather’d in their prime Rot and consume themselves in little time.” -William Shakespeare
• “See the minutes, how they run, How many make the hour full complete; How many hours bring about the day; How many days will finish up the year; How many years a mortal man may live.” -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 else may hap, to time I will commit.” -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
• “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
• “There are many events in the womb of time which will be delivered.” -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
• “Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying!” -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
• “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
• “Time travels in divers paces with divers persons. I’ll tell you who Time ambles withal, who Time trots withal, who Time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal.” -William Shakespeare
• “We should hold day with the Antipodes, If you would walk in absence of the sun.” -William Shakespeare
• “Time is the old justice that examines all such offenders, and let Time try.” -William Shakespeare
• “The extreme parts of time extremely forms all causes to the purpose of his speed.” -William Shakespeare
• “Time be thine, And thy best graces spend it at thy will.” -William Shakespeare
• “The time is out of joint : O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right!” -William Shakespeare
• “The whirligig of time brings in his revenges.” -William Shakespeare
• “Time’s glory is to command contending kings, To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light.” -William Shakespeare
• “The time is out of joint.” -William Shakespeare
• “Time is the nurse and breeder of all good.” -William Shakespeare
• “Time, that takes survey of all the world, Must have a stop.” -William Shakespeare
• “O time, thou must untangle this, not I. It is too hard a knot for me t’untie.” -William Shakespeare
• “Time goes on crutches till love have all his rites.” -William Shakespeare
• “Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, A great-sized monster of ingratitudes. Those scraps are good deeds past, which are devour’d As fast as they are made, forgot as soon as done.” -William Shakespeare
• “Old Time the clock-setter.” -William Shakespeare
• “We are time’s subjects, and time bids be gone.” -William Shakespeare
• “Time … thou ceaseless lackey to eternity.” -William Shakespeare
• “Time is like a fashionable host That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, And with his arm outstretch’d, as he would fly, Grasps in the comer.” -William Shakespeare
• “There’s a time for all things.” -William Shakespeare
• “Many strokes, though with a little axe, hew down and fell the hardest-timber’d oak.” -William Shakespeare
• “Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.” -William Shakespeare
• “In time we hate that which we often fear.” -William Shakespeare
• “Make use of time, let not advantage slip.” -William Shakespeare
• “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” -William Shakespeare
• “Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.” -William Shakespeare
• “What is past is prologue.” -William Shakespeare
• “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.” -William Shakespeare
• “Let every man be master of his time.” -William Shakespeare

Best William Shakespeare Quotes From Romeo And Juliet

• “I defy you, stars.” -William Shakespeare
• “Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars.” -William Shakespeare
• 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
• “If he be married my grave is like to be my wedding bed.” -William Shakespeare
• “O, I am Fortune’s fool!” -William Shakespeare
• “Go wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.” -William Shakespeare
• “I must be gone and live, or stay and die.” -William Shakespeare
• 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
• “Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.” -William Shakespeare
• “All are punished.” -William Shakespeare
• From ancient grudge break to new mutiny Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.” -William Shakespeare
• “What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word. As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.”
• “A plague o’ both your houses!” -William Shakespeare
• “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” -William Shakespeare
• “If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.” -William Shakespeare
• “Don’t waste your love on somebody, who doesn’t value it.” -William Shakespeare
• “Love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.” -William Shakespeare
• “This bud of love by summer’s ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.” -William Shakespeare
• “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” -William Shakespeare
• “Do thou but close our hands with holy words, Then love-devouring death do what he dare; It is enough I may but call her mine.” -William Shakespeare
• “Two households, both alike in dignity In fair Verona, where we lay our scene “I fear too early, for my mind misgives; Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars, Shall bitterly begin.” -William Shakespeare
• “These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, Which, as they kiss, consume.” -William Shakespeare
• “O, here Will I set up my everlasting rest, And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars.” -William Shakespeare
• From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing death!” -William Shakespeare
• “Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof.” -William Shakespeare
• “Lovers can do their amorous rites by their own beauties.” -William Shakespeare
• “Young men’s love then lies Not truly in their hearts but in their eyes.” -William Shakespeare
• “For stony limits cannot hold love out, And what love can do that dares love attempt.” -William Shakespeare
• “Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake- its everything except what it is!” -William Shakespeare
• “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” -William Shakespeare
• “With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls, For stony limits cannot hold love out.” -William Shakespeare
• “See how she leans her cheek upon her hand, O that I were a glove upon that hand that I might touch that cheek!” -William Shakespeare
• “Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes; Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.” -William Shakespeare
• “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep. The more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.” -William Shakespeare
• “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep. The more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.” -William Shakespeare
• “Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes; Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.” -William Shakespeare
• “These violent delights have violent ends, And in their triumph die.” -William Shakespeare
• “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.” -William Shakespeare
• “What must be shall be.” -William Shakespeare