Explore the most impactful and insightful quotes and sayings by William Shakespeare, and enrich your perspective with the wisdom. Share these inspiring William Shakespeare quotes pictures with your friends on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blogs, completely free. Here are the top 4777 William Shakespeare quotes for you to read and share.
OPHELIA: Still better, and worse. -- William Shakespeare
But fish not with this melancholy bait
For this fool gudgeon, this opinion. -- William Shakespeare
A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age. -- 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
Affection is a coal that must be cooled; Else, suffered, it will set the heart on fire. -- William Shakespeare
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly. -- William Shakespeare
Will you walk out of the air, my lord? HAMLET Into my grave. -- William Shakespeare
O serpent heart hid with a flowering face!
Did ever a dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant, feind angelical, dove feather raven, wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of devinest show, just opposite to what thou justly seemest - A dammed saint, an honourable villain! -- William Shakespeare
Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate,
Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving, -- William Shakespeare
Music can minister to minds diseased, pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, raze out the written troubles of the brain, and with its sweet oblivious antidote, cleanse the full bosom of all perilous stuff that weighs upon the heart. -- William Shakespeare
God send everyone their heart's desire! -- William Shakespeare
There was a star danced, and under that was I born. -- William Shakespeare
There's no trust, No faith, no honesty in men; all perjured, All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers. -- William Shakespeare
I am a man more sinn'd against than sinning. -- William Shakespeare
Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor; for 'tis the mind that makes the body rich -- William Shakespeare
For their love
Llies in their purses, and whoso empties them
By so much fills their hearts with deadly hate. -- 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
Base men being in love have then a nobility in their natures more than is native to them. -- William Shakespeare
For doting, not for loving, pupil mine. -- William Shakespeare
Then love-devouring Death do what he dare. -- William Shakespeare
Fruits that blossom first will first be ripe. -- William Shakespeare
Prosperity's the very bond of love, Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together Affliction alters. -- William Shakespeare
This thought is as a death. -- William Shakespeare
Get you gone, you dwarf,
You minimus of hindering knotgrass made,
You bead, you acorn! -- William Shakespeare
Be to yourself as you would to your friend. -- William Shakespeare
O, sir, I will not be so hard-hearted. I will give out divers schedules of my beauty. It shall be inventoried, and every particle and utensil labeled to my will: as, item, two lips indifferent red; item, two grey eyes, with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and so forth. -- William Shakespeare
If I could write the beauty of your eyes And in fresh numbers number all your graces, The age to come would say, 'This poet lies; Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces.' -- William Shakespeare
As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him. -- William Shakespeare
By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death will seize the doctor too. -- William Shakespeare
Blind is his love and best befits the dark- Benvolio (in Romeo and Juliet) -- William Shakespeare
First Senator
Worthy Timon,
TIMON
Of none but such as you, and you of Timon. -- William Shakespeare
Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who hath any honesty in him. -- William Shakespeare
A time, methinks, too short To make a world-without-end bargain in. -- William Shakespeare
Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy, to comfort thee, though thou art banished. Friar Lawrence to Romeo. -- William Shakespeare
Sawcy, and ouer-bold, how did you dare
To Trade, and Trafficke with Macbeth,
In Riddles, and Affaires of death;
And I the Mistris of your Charmes,
The close contriuer of all harmes,
Was neuer call'd to beare my part,
Or shew the glory of our Art? -- William Shakespeare
Old fashions please me best; I am not so nice
To change true rules for odd inventions. -- William Shakespeare
There is not one wise man in twenty that will praise himself. -- William Shakespeare
Travellers ne'er did lie,
Though fools at home condemn 'em.
-Antonio -- William Shakespeare
Life is too short, so live your life to the fullest..every second of your life just treasure it.. -- 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
That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air. -- William Shakespeare
Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself are much condemned to have an itching palm. -- William Shakespeare
That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in. and the best of me is diligence. -- William Shakespeare
Tis torture, and not mercy. Heaven is here Where Juliet lives, and every cat and dog And little mouse, every unworthy thing, Live here in heaven and may look on her, But Romeo may not. -- William Shakespeare
GRATIANO
I have a wife I love. I wish she were in heaven so she could appeal to some power to make this dog Jew change his mind.
NERISSA
It's nice you're offering to sacrifice her behind her back. That wish of yours could start quite an argument back at home. -- William Shakespeare
Turn him into stars and form a constellation in his image. His face will make the heavens so beautiful that the world will fall in love with the night and forget about the garish sun. -- William Shakespeare
Tis gold Which buys admittance
oft it doth
yea, and makes Diana's rangers false themselves, yield up This deer to th' stand o' th' stealer: and 'tis gold Which makes the true man kill'd and saves the thief, Nay, sometimes hangs both thief and true man. -- William Shakespeare
You kiss by th' book. -- 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
If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i' th' shell. -- William Shakespeare
Out o' th' moon, I do assure thee. I was the man in the moon when time was,
--Stephano
(Act II, scene 2, lines 136-137) -- William Shakespeare
Tend to th' master's whistle. - Blow -- 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
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
In such business
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of th' ignorant
More learned than the ears. -- William Shakespeare
Where is Polonius?
HAMLET
In heaven. Send hither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i' th' other place yourself. But if indeed you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. -- William Shakespeare
Th abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power. -- William Shakespeare
We two alone will sing like bids i' th' cage. -- William Shakespeare
Why, the wrong is but a wrong i'th'world; and having the world for your labour, 'tis a wrong in your own world, and you might quickly make it a right. -- 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
Nor shall this peace sleep with her; but as when
The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix,
Her ashes new-create another heir
As great in admiration as herself. -- William Shakespeare
Return of love, more blest may be the view;
As call it winter, which being full of care,
Makes summer's welcome thrice more wish'd, more rare.
Sonet56 -- William Shakespeare
The tongues of dying men enforce attention like deep harmony. -- William Shakespeare
Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and Servant -- William Shakespeare
Had it pleas'd heaven
To try me with affliction * * *
I should have found in some place of my soul
A drop of patience. -- William Shakespeare
I have seen better faces in my time Than stands on any shoulder that I see Before me at this instant. -- William Shakespeare
Boldness be my friend. -- William Shakespeare
Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground. -- William Shakespeare
Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy
Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more
To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath
This neighbours air, and let rich music's tongue
Unfold the imagined happiness that both
Receive in either by this dear encounter. -- William Shakespeare
Ay, to the proof, as mountains are for winds, that shakes not, though they blow perpetually. -- William Shakespeare
No villainous bounty yet hath passed my heart;
Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given. -- 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
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
So may I, blind fortune leading me,
Miss that which one unworthier may attain,
And die with grieving. -- William Shakespeare
When daisies pied and violets blue And lady-smocks all silver-white And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight, The cuckoo then, on every tree, Mocks married men; for thus sings he, Cuckoo; Cuckoo, cuckoo; O, word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear. -- William Shakespeare
Love comforteth like sunshine after rain. -- William Shakespeare
Round about the cauldron go; In the poison'd entrails throw. Toad, that under cold stone Days and nights has thirty-one Swelter'd venom sleeping got, Boil thou first i' the charmed pot. -- William Shakespeare
It comes to pass oft that a terrible oath, with a swaggering accent sharply twanged off, gives manhood more approbation than ever proof itself would have earned him. -- 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 will through and through
Cleanse the foul body of th' infected world,
If they will patiently receive my medicine. -- William Shakespeare
For it falls out
That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles 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
While it was ours. -- William Shakespeare
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy -- William Shakespeare
But whate'er I am, nor I nor any man that but man is,
With nothing shall be pleased 'til he be eased
With being nothing. -- William Shakespeare
I praise God for you, sir: your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange with-out heresy. -- William Shakespeare
Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head. -- William Shakespeare
Siward: Then he is dead?
Ross: Ay, and brought off the field: your cause of sorrow
Must not be measured by the worth, for then
It hath no end. -- William Shakespeare
My meaning in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me that he is sufficient. -- William Shakespeare
Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably. -- William Shakespeare
A blind man can't forget the eyesight he lost, show me any beautiful girl. How can her beauty not remind me of the one whose beauty surpasses hers? -- William Shakespeare
Give me your hands, if we be friends, and Robin shall restore amends. -- William Shakespeare
Lord, what fools these mortals be! -- William Shakespeare
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
Are not you he?'
'Thou speak'st aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night. -- 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
This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep
That from this golden rigol hath divorc'd
So many English kings. -- William Shakespeare
All pride is willing pride. -- William Shakespeare
When Elizabeth was old and had a wrinkled face and black teeth, she was one day discovered practicing the dance step alone, to the sound of a fiddle, determined to keep up to the last the limberness and agility necessary to impress foreign ambassadors with her grace and youth. -- William Shakespeare
Hear my soul speak. Of the very instant that I saw you, did my heart fly at your service -- 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
Where the bee sucks, there suck I
In the cow-slip's bell i lie
There I couch when owls do cry -- 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
I'll be supposed upon a book, his face is the worst thing about him. -- William Shakespeare
Virtue preserv'd from fell destruction's blast,
Led on by heaven, and crown'd with joy at last. -- 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
Love is like a child, That longs for everything it can come by -- 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
Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts, Which I by lacking have supposed dead; And there reigns Love, and all Love's loving parts, And all those friends which I thought buried. -- William Shakespeare
By heaven, I do love: and it hath taught me to rhyme, and to be mekancholy. -- William Shakespeare
You saw her fair, none else being by,
Herself pois'd with herself in either eye;
But in that crystal scales let there be weigh'd
Your lady's love against some other maid
That I will show you shining at this feast,
And she shall scant show well that now seems best. -- 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
Why, there's no remedy; 'tis the curse of service, Preferment goes by letter and affection, And not by old gradation, where each second Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself Whether I in any just term am affin'd To love the Moor. -- 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
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
This late dissension grown betwixt the peers
Burns under feigned ashes of forg'd love,
And will at last break out into a flame:
As festered members rot but by degree,
Till bones and flesh and sinews fall away,
So will this base and envious discord breed. -- William Shakespeare
By Heaven, I love thee better than myself -- William Shakespeare
LEONATO O, she tore the letter into a thousand half-pence; railed at herself, that she should be so immodest to write to one that she knew would flout her. 'I measure him,' says she, 'by my own spirit; for I should flout him, if he writ to me; yea, though I love him, I should. -- William Shakespeare
O hell! to choose love by another's eye. -- William Shakespeare
Do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviors to love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn by falling in love: -- William Shakespeare
Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye. -- William Shakespeare
And writers say, as the most forward bud
Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,
Even so by love the young and tender wit
Is turn'd to folly, blasting in the bud,
Losing his verdure even in the prime,
And all the fair effects of future hopes. -- William Shakespeare
Benedick
By this hand, I love thee.
Beatrice
Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it. -- William Shakespeare
Art thou gone so, love, lord, ay husband, friend?
I must hear from thee every day in the hour,
For in a minute there are many days.
O, by this count I shall be much in years
Ere I again behold my Romeo! -- William Shakespeare
ROMEO
By heaven, I love thee better than myself,
For I come hither arm'd against myself. -- William Shakespeare
And yet by heaven I think my love as rare / as any that she belie with false compare
Sonnett CXXX, ll, 13-14 -- William Shakespeare
What is light, if Sylvia be not seen? What is joy if Sylvia be not by? -- William Shakespeare
O, how this spring of love resembleth
The uncertain glory of an April day,
Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,
And by and by a cloud takes all away! -- William Shakespeare
O, swear not by the moon, the fickle moon, the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circle orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable -- William Shakespeare
This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet -- William Shakespeare
ROMEO: I have night's cloak to hide me from their sight;
And but thou love me, let them find me here:
My life were better ended by their hate,
Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love. -- William Shakespeare
By God, I cannot flatter, I do defy The tongues of soothers! but a braver place In my heart's love hath no man than yourself. Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord. -- 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
A contract of eternal bond of love, Confirm'd by mutual joinder of your hands, Arrested by the holy close of lips, Strength'ned by the interchangement of your rings, And all the ceremony of this compact Seal'd in my function, by my testimony. -- William Shakespeare
Even as one heat another heat expels, or as one nail by strength drives out another, so the remembrance of my former love is by a newer object quite forgotten. -- William Shakespeare
Love is begun by time and time qualifies the spark and fire of it. -- William Shakespeare
Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly. then your love would also change. -- 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
Ay, but hearken, sir; though the chameleon Love can feed on the air, I am one that am nourished by my victuals, and would fain have meat. -- 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
The hind that would be mated by the lion
Must die for love. -- William Shakespeare
O benefit of ill! Now I find true
That better is by evil still made better;
And ruin'd love, when it is built anew,
Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.
So I return rebuk'd to my content,
And gain by ills thrice more than I have spent. -- William Shakespeare
In love the heavens themselves do guide the state;
Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate. -- William Shakespeare
If you love and get hurt,love more,if you love more and hurt more, love even more,if you love even more and get hurt even more,until it hurts no more" ... ,"Dnt be afraid of the shadows, it means there is a light near by -- William Shakespeare
Ay me! For aught that I could every read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth,
But either it was different in blood- -- William Shakespeare
She refuses to be hit with Cupid's arrow. Shielded by the armor of chastity, she can't be charmed by words of love. She won't be assaulted by loving eyes, and she won't accept gifts of gold. -- William Shakespeare
Lovers can do their amorous rites by their own beauties -- William Shakespeare
To give yourself away keep yourself still,
And you must live drawn by your own sweet skill. -- William Shakespeare
Adversity makes strange bedfellows. -- William Shakespeare
London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the -- William Shakespeare
Love comforeth 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
If I were to kiss you then go to hell, I would. So then I can brag with the devils I saw heaven without ever entering it. -- William Shakespeare
I'll never be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand as if a man were author to himself and knew no other kin. -- William Shakespeare
Here's flowers for you; hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram; The marigold. The Winter's Tale, Act 4, Sc.4 -- William Shakespeare
Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram; The marigold, that goes to bed wi' the sun, and with him rise weeping. -- William Shakespeare
Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand,
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover's fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be! -- 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
It is an heretic that makes the fire,
Not she which burns in't. -- William Shakespeare
I hate ingratitude more in a man
than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,
or any taint of vice whose strong corruption
inhabits our frail blood. -- 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
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.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble. -- William Shakespeare
Neither a borrower nor a lender be, for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. -- William Shakespeare
They are sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing. -- William Shakespeare
I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus. -- William Shakespeare
Sir Andrew Ague-Cheek: I'll stay a month longer. I am a fellow o' the strangest mind i' the world; I delight in masques and revels sometimes altogether (He's an oddity in that he enjoys having fun) -- William Shakespeare
For where thou art, there is the world itself,
With every several pleasure in the world,
And where thou art not, desolation. -- William Shakespeare
Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast, Ready with every nod to tumble down Into the fatal bowels of the deep. -- William Shakespeare
Then is it sin to rush into the secret house of death. Ere death dare come to us? -- William Shakespeare
A traveler. By my faith, you have great reason to be sad. I fear you have sold your own lands to see other men's. Then to have seen much and to have nothing is to have rich eyes and poor hands. -- William Shakespeare
Cin. Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead! Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets. -- William Shakespeare
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute:
Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer,
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near. -- William Shakespeare
Fear not, Cesario, take thy fortunes up. Be that thou know'st thou art and then thou art as great as that thou fear'st. -- William Shakespeare
No man means evil but the devil, and we shall know him by his horns. -- William Shakespeare
My brain more busy than the labouring spider Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies. -- William Shakespeare
This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;
Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents. -- William Shakespeare
O, what men dare do! -- William Shakespeare
Life... is a paradise to what we fear of death. -- 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. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war's a destroyer of men. -- William Shakespeare
How DARE you and the rest of your barbarians set fire to my library? Play conqueror all you want, Mighty Caesar! Rape, murder, pillage thousands, even millions of human beings! But neither you nor any other barbarian has the right to destroy one human thought! -- 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
Throw away respect,
Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty;
For you have but mistook me all this while.
I live with bread, like you; feel want,
Taste grief, need friends. Subjected thus,
How can you say to me I am king? -- William Shakespeare
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
Is the next way to draw new mischief on. -- William Shakespeare
It were a better death than die with mocks, 84 Which is as bad as die with tickling. -- William Shakespeare
For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite the man that mocks at it and sets it light. -- William Shakespeare
Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs; being purg'd, 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
This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad. -- William Shakespeare
Who sees his true-love in her naked bed,
Teaching the sheets a whiter hue than white,
But when his glutton eye so full hath fed,
His other agents aim at like delight?
Who is so faint that dare not be so bold
To touch the fire, the weather being cold? -- William Shakespeare
Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
Scorn and derision never come in tears:
Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born,
In their nativity all truth appears.
How can these things in me seem scorn to you,
Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true? -- 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
I'll be no longer guilty of this sin; this sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horseback-breaker, this huge hill of flesh, - -- William Shakespeare
My affection hath an unknown bottom, like the Bay of Portugal. -- William Shakespeare
'By heaven, that thou art fair, is most infallible true, that thou art beauteous truth itself, that thou art lovely. More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer than truth itself, have commiseration on thy heroical vassal. -- William Shakespeare
And when he dies, cut him out in little stars, and the face of heaven will be so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no heed to the garish sun. -- William Shakespeare
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought -- William Shakespeare
My dull brain was wrought with things forgotten. -- William Shakespeare
Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break. -- 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
You are an alchemist; make gold of that. -- 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
Covering discretion with a coat of folly. -- 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
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?
(The Taming of the Shrew, 3.1.10-13), Lucentio -- William Shakespeare
O heaven! were man, But constant, he were perfect. -- William Shakespeare
JAQUES: Rosalind is your love's name?
ORLANDO: Yes, just.
JAQUES: I do not like her name.
ORLANDO: There was no thought of pleasing you when she was christened. -- William Shakespeare
O, I do not like that paying back, 'tis a double labor. -- William Shakespeare
For by our ears our hearts oft tainted be. -- William Shakespeare
Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death the memory be green. -- William Shakespeare
Sir, 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 men's good, content with my harm; and the greatest of my pride is to see my ewes graze and my lambs suck. (As You Like It, Act 3, Sc. 2.) -- 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
Taste your legs, sire: put them into motion. -- 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
Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant;
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer -- William Shakespeare
This rough magic I here abjure and when I have required some heavenly music, which even now I do, to work mine end upon their senses that this airy charm is for, I'll break my staff, bury it certain fathoms in the earth, and deeper than did ever plummet sound, I'll drown my book. -- William Shakespeare
Let not the world see fear and sad distrust govern the motion of a kingly eye. -- William Shakespeare
And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says very wisely, "It is ten o'clock:
Thus we may see," quoth he, "how the world wags." -- William Shakespeare
He is as full of valor as of kindness. Princely in both. -- William Shakespeare
Modest doubt is call'd the beacon of the wise. -- William Shakespeare
Within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal temples of a king Keeps Death his court. -- William Shakespeare
Yet but three come one more.
Two of both kinds make up four.
Ere she comes curst and sad.
Cupid is a knavish lad.
Thus to make poor females mad. -- William Shakespeare
A knavish speech sleeps in a fool's ear. -- William Shakespeare
Cupid is a knavish lad,
Thus to make poor mortals mad! -- 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
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 -- William Shakespeare
Diseases desperate grown,
By desperate appliance are relieved,
Or not at all. -- William Shakespeare
O' What may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side! -- William Shakespeare
Oh what man may hide inside, tho angel on the outward side. -- William Shakespeare
And he is yours, and his must needs be yours. Your servant's servant is your servant, madam. -- William Shakespeare
Such was the discipline of Elizabeth's court that any man who struck another within it had his right hand chopped off by the executioner in a most horrible manner. -- William Shakespeare
I have heard it said
There is an art which in their piedness shares
With great creating nature. -- 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
Mechanic slaves
With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers, shall
Uplift us to the view. -- William Shakespeare
Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end. -- William Shakespeare
life is like theater -- 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
She's Love, she loves, and yet she is not lov'd. -- William Shakespeare
Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion, I with great truth catch mere simplicity; Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns, With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare. -- William Shakespeare
O most delicate fiend!
Who is't can read a woman? Is there more? -- William Shakespeare
Brutus, I do observe you now of late: I have not from your eyes that gentleness And show of love as I was wont to have: You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand Over your friend that loves you. Poor Brutus, with himself at war, Forgets the shows of love to other men. -- William Shakespeare
For you, in my respect, are all the world.
Then how can it be said I am alone
When all the world is here to look on me? -- William Shakespeare
Avaunt, you cullions! -- William Shakespeare
What pleasure, sir, find we in life to lock it / From action and adventure? -- 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
This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; a foolish extravagant spirit full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions; these are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion. -- William Shakespeare
A blank, my lord. She never told her love, 110 But let concealment, like a worm i'the bud, Feed on her damask cheek. -- 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
The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness
And time to speak it in. You rub the sore
When you should bring the plaster. -- William Shakespeare
Good heavens, man, give them more than that! If you pay everyone what they deserve, would anyone ever escape a whipping? Treat them with honor and dignity.
The less they deserve, the more your generosity is worth. Lead them inside. -- William Shakespeare
O true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die -- William Shakespeare
How now, spirit! Whither wander you? -- William Shakespeare
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake,
And die as fast as they see others grow. -- 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,
Drawn with a team of little atomi
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep. -- William Shakespeare
Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least; nor are those empty-hearted whose low sounds reverb no hollowness. -- William Shakespeare
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, which still we thank as love. -- William Shakespeare
I cannot heave my heart into my mouth. I love your majesty according to my bond; no more no less. -- William Shakespeare
I hold it cowardice To rest mistrustful where a noble heart Hath pawned an open hand in sign of love. -- William Shakespeare
O that I were a mockery king of snow
Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke
To melt myself away in water drops! -- William Shakespeare
Know the grave doth gape for thee thrice wider than for other men. -- William Shakespeare
KING LEAR: No.
KENT: Yes.
KING LEAR: No, I say.
KENT: I say, yea.
KING LEAR: No, no, they would not.
KENT: Yes, they have.
KING LEAR: By Jupiter, I swear, no.
KENT: By Juno, I swear, ay. -- William Shakespeare
I was too young that time to value her,
But now I know her. If she be a traitor,
Why, so am I. We still have slept together,
Rose at an instant, learned, played, eat together,
And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans,
Still we went coupled and inseparable. -- William Shakespeare
A girl takes too much time to love and a few seconds to hate. but a boy takes a few seconds to love and too much time to hate. -- William Shakespeare
If you love her, you cannot see her. -- William Shakespeare
Literature is a comprehensive essence of the intellectual life of a nation. -- William Shakespeare
The glowworm shows the matin to be near And gins to pale his uneffectual fire. -- William Shakespeare
Motley's the only wear. -- William Shakespeare
Cowards die many times; a brave man dies but once. -- 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
Dream on, dream on, of bloody deeds and death. -- William Shakespeare
JACQUES: The worst fault you have is to be in love. -- 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
There is flattery in friendship. -- William Shakespeare
To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods. -- William Shakespeare
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breath
What thou hast said to me. -- William Shakespeare
If I had a thousand sons, the first humane principle I would teach them should be to forswear thin potations and to addict themselves to sack. -- 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
I profess myself an enemy to all other joys, which the most precious square of sense possesses, and find I am alone felicitate in your dear highness love. -- William Shakespeare
A table full of welcome makes scarce one dainty dish. -- William Shakespeare
Alas, my lord, your wisdom is consumed in confidence. -- 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
O, let not virtue seek Remuneration for the thing it was; For beauty, wit, High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service, Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all To envious and calumniating time. -- William Shakespeare
Now it is the time of night,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
And we fairies, that do run,
From the presence of the sun,
Follow darkness like a dream. -- William Shakespeare
He kills her in her own humor. -- William Shakespeare
She moves me not, or not removes at least affection's edge in me. -- William Shakespeare
Of all mad matches never was the like
Being mad herself, she's madly mated. -- William Shakespeare
Is it possible that love should of a sudden take such a hold? -- William Shakespeare
Whate'er I read to her. I'll plead for you
As for my patron, stand you so assured,
As firmly as yourself were in still place -
Yea, and perhaps with more successful words
Than you, unless you were a scholar, sir.
O this learning, what a thing it is! -- 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
Nothing comes amiss, so money comes withal. -- William Shakespeare
For I am he am born to tame you, Kate; and bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate conformable as other household Kates. -- William Shakespeare
Of all matches never was the like. -- William Shakespeare
For I am born to tame you, Kate,
And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate
Comfortable as other household Kates. -- William Shakespeare
This is a way to kill a wife with kindness,
And thus I'll curb her mad and headstrong humour.
He that knows better how to tame a shrew,
Now let him speak. 'Tis charity to show. -- William Shakespeare
Such a mad marriage never was before. -- William Shakespeare
She vied so fast, protesting oath after oath,
that in a twink she won me to her love.
O, you are novices. 'Tis a world to see
How tame, when men and women are alone,
A meacock wretch can make the curstest shrew. -- William Shakespeare
By this reckoning he is more a shrew than she. -- William Shakespeare
And too soon Marred are those so early Made. -- William Shakespeare
A young man married is a man that's marred. -- William Shakespeare
ROSENCRANTZ My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.
HAMLET The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing -
GUILDENSTERN A thing my lord?
HAMLET Of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after! -- William Shakespeare
Now my charms are all o'erthrown... -- William Shakespeare
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day
And make me travel forth without my cloak,
To let base clouds o'ertake me in my way,
Hiding they brav'ry in their rotten smoke? -- William Shakespeare
And in some perfumes there is more delight than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know that music hath a far more pleasing sound. -- William Shakespeare
Liver of blaspheming Jew, Gall of goat and slips of yew Slivered in the moon's eclipse, Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips, (30) Finger of birth-strangled babe Ditch-delivered by a drab, Make the gruel thick and slab. Add thereto a tiger's chaudron, For the ingredients of our cauldron. -- William Shakespeare
There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting. -- 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
Flower of this purple dye, Hit with Cupid's archery, Sink in apple of his eye. -- William Shakespeare
How every fool can play upon the word! -- 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
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
If by chance I talk a little wild, forgive me; I had it from my father. -- 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: -- William Shakespeare
I hold him but a fool that will endanger His body for a girl that loves him not. -- William Shakespeare
Come on, come on; you are pictures out of doors,
Bells in your parlours, wild cats in your kitchens,
Saints in your injuries, devils being offended,
Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds. -- William Shakespeare
That is the way to lay the city flat, To bring the roof to the foundation, And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges, In heaps and piles of ruin. -- William Shakespeare
He is white-livered and red-faced. -- William Shakespeare
The pow'r I have on you is to spare you / The malice towards you, to forgive you.
Posthumus -- William Shakespeare
No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en -- William Shakespeare
Not proud you have, but thankful that you have. Proud can I never be of what I hate, but thankful even for hate that is meant love. -- William Shakespeare
Women may fail when there is no strength in man -- William Shakespeare
Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother: I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth. -- William Shakespeare
Not stepping over the bounds of modesty. -- 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
Because of this it has been possible for the play to be read, as it so often has been since the Romantic period, as a credo, an apologia pro vita sua (a justification of his own life), on the part of Shakespeare the dramatist. -- William Shakespeare
O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there! -- William Shakespeare
Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away. -- 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
Come, come, I'll go burn some sack. 'Tis too late to go to bed now. Come, knight. Come, knight. -- William Shakespeare
Thought is free. -- William Shakespeare
No ... holy father, throw away that thought.
Believe not that the dribbling dart of love
Can pierce a complete bosom. -- William Shakespeare
My liege, and madam, to expostulate What majesty should be, what duty is, Why day is day, night night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day and time. Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief. -- William Shakespeare
And teach me how To name the bigger light, and how the less, That burn by day and night ... -- 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
Hung be the heavens with black! Yield, day, to night! -- William Shakespeare
Where wasteful Time debateth with decay
To change your day of youth to sullied night,
And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new -- William Shakespeare
Come, night, come, Romeo, come, thou day in night; For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night. Whiter than new snow upon a raven's back. -- 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
Let never day nor night unhallowed pass, but still remember what the Lord hath done. -- William Shakespeare
Look, the world's comforter, with weary gait,
His day's hot task hath ended in the west:
The owl, night's herald, shrieks-'tis very late;
The sheep are gone to fold, birds to their nest;
And coal-black clouds, that shadow heaven's light,
Do summon us to part, and bid good night. -- William Shakespeare
He that drinks all night, and is hanged betimes in the morning, may sleep the sounder all the next day. -- William Shakespeare
This tune goes manly.
Come, go we to the King. Our power is ready;
Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above
Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may.
The night is long that never finds the day.
They exit. -- William Shakespeare
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
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
-Sonnet 73 -- William Shakespeare
Lo thus by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee, and for myself, no quiet find. -- William Shakespeare
Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world; now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on. -- William Shakespeare
Night's candles have burned out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountaintops. Hope tinged with melancholy - like life. -- William Shakespeare
Receive what cheer you may. The night is long that never finds the day. -- William Shakespeare
Discharge my followers; let them hence away,
From Richard's night to Bolingbrooke's fair day. -- William Shakespeare
I am dying, Egypt, dying; only
I here importune death awhile, until
Of many thousand kisses the poor last
I lay upon thy lips. -- William Shakespeare
Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow,
Ang'ring itself and others. -- William Shakespeare
The time of life is short;
To spend that shortness basely were too long. -- William Shakespeare
O gentlemen, the time of life is short!
To spend that shortness basely were too long,
If life did ride upon a dial's point,
Still ending at the arrival of an hour. -- 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
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
Wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it. -- 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
How is it that the clouds still hang on you? -- 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
PROLOGUE:
For us and for our tragedy,
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.
HAMLET:
Is this a prologue or the posy of a ring? -- William Shakespeare
Madman, thou errest. I say, there is no darkness but ignorance, in which thou art more puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog. -- William Shakespeare
where civil blood makes civil hands unclean -- William Shakespeare
To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature. -- William Shakespeare
Nice customs curtsy to great kings. -- William Shakespeare
But O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes. -- William Shakespeare
Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again. -- William Shakespeare
A world in which the choices we make do not finally matter, because our wills are already fixed beneath the weight of a crushing determinism, is not a human world. -- William Shakespeare
Danger knows full well that Caesar is more dangerous than he. We are two lions litter'd in one day, and I the elder and more terrible. -- William Shakespeare
O,come,be buried
A second time within these arms (They embrace) -- William Shakespeare
Travelers must be content. -- William Shakespeare
Never Play With The Feelings Of Others, Because You May Win The Game But The Risk Is That You Will Surely Lose The Person For Life Time -- William Shakespeare
Tempt not a desperate man -- William Shakespeare
Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood. -- William Shakespeare
Bassanio: Do all men kill all the things they do not love?
Shylock: Hates any man the thing he would not kill?
Bassanio: Every offence is not a hate at first. -- William Shakespeare
Go, prick thy face and over-red thy fear,
Thou lily-livered boy. -- 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
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 me or hate me
both are in my favor.
If you love me,
I'll always be in your heart,
but if you hate me,
I'll always be in your mind. -- William Shakespeare
The April's in her eyes: it is love's Spring,
And these the showers to bring it on.. -- William Shakespeare
Love moderately. Long love doth so.
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
*Love each other in moderation. That is the key to long-lasting love. Too fast is as bad as too slow.* -- William Shakespeare
The sweetest honey is loathsome in its own deliciousness. And in the taste destroys the appetite. Therefore, love moderately. -- William Shakespeare
That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun. -- 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
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
And therefore is love said to be a child, Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd -- 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
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
I am a bastard, too. I love bastards! I am bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, bastard in valor, in everything illegitimate. -- William Shakespeare
Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity
In least speak most, to my capacity. -- William Shakespeare
For which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me? -- William Shakespeare
The sight of lovers feedeth those in love. -- William Shakespeare
O hard-believing love, how strange it seems!
Not to believe, and yet too credulous:
Thy weal and woe are both of them extremes;
Despair and hope make thee ridiculous:
The one doth flatter thee in thoughts unlikely,
In likely thoughts the other kills thee quickly. -- William Shakespeare
In love?
Out-
Of love?
Out of her favour where I am in love. -- William Shakespeare
Make me a willow cabin at your gate,
And call upon my soul within the house;
Write loyal cantons of contemned love
And sing them loud even in the dead of night. -- 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
There's beggary in love that can be reckoned -- William Shakespeare
I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip -- William Shakespeare
Love is merely a madness; and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do; and the reason why they are not so punish'd and cured is that the lunacy is so
ordinary that the whippers are in love too. -- William Shakespeare
An oven that is stopp'd, or river stay'd,
Burneth more hotly, swelleth with more rage:
So of concealed sorrow may be said;
Free vent of words love's fire doth assuage;
But when the heart's attorney once is mute,
The client breaks, as desperate in his suit. -- 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
On a day - alack the day! -
Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom passing fair
Playing in the wanton air -- William Shakespeare
The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness. -- 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 thy own life's key: be check'd for silence, But never tax'd for speech. -- William Shakespeare
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief -- William Shakespeare
My love to love is love but to disgrace it,
For I have heard it is a life in death,
That laughs and weeps, and all but with a breath. -- William Shakespeare
You cannot call it love, for at your age the heyday in the blood is tame -- 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
And whatsomever else shall hap tonight, give it an understanding but no tongue, I will requit your love. So, fare your well. My lord, he hath importuned me with love, in honourable fashion. -- 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
Our nearness to the king in love is nearness to those who love not the king. -- 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
While we lie tumbling in the hay. -- William Shakespeare
Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked between son and father. This -- William Shakespeare
They are in the very wrath of love, and they will go together. Clubs cannot part them -- 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
You're in love? Out Out of love? I love someone. She doesn't love me. -- William Shakespeare
If it be love indeed, tell me how much.
There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.
I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd.
Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.
Antony and Cleopatra - Act 1, Scene 1 -- William Shakespeare
Out of her favour, where I am in love. -- William Shakespeare
Oh, flatter me; for love delights in praises. -- William Shakespeare
Music, moody food
Of us that trade in love. -- William Shakespeare
She marking them begins a wailing note And sings extemporally a woeful ditty How love makes young men thrall and old men dote How love is wise in folly, foolish-witty Her heavy anthem still concludes in woe, And still the choir of echoes answer so. -- William Shakespeare
Besides, our nearness to the King in love
Is near the hate of those love not the King. -- William Shakespeare
Self-love is the most inhibited sin in the canon. -- 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
Man and wife, being two, are one in love. -- William Shakespeare
O powerful love, that in some respects makes a beast a man, in some other, a man a beast. -- William Shakespeare
Yet do thy worst old Time: despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young -- William Shakespeare
I love a ballad in print o' life, for then we are sure they are true. -- William Shakespeare
What a pretty thing man is when he goes in his doublet and hose and leaves off his wit! -- William Shakespeare
Who wooed in haste, and means to wed at leisure. -- William Shakespeare
O, then, what graces in my love do dwell, That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell! -- William Shakespeare
Oh, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence.
Love takes the meaning in love's conference. I mean that my heart unto yours is knit
So that but one heart we can make of it. -- William Shakespeare
You know that love
Will creep in service where it cannot go. -- William Shakespeare
In springtime, the only pretty ring time
Birds sing, hey ding
A-ding, a-ding
Sweet lovers love the spring - -- William Shakespeare
I pray you, do not fall in love with me, for I am falser than vows made in wine. -- William Shakespeare
I am not gamesome: I do lack some part
of that quick spirit that is in Antony. -- William Shakespeare
[Exeunt Iago and Attendants.] And, till she come, as truly as to heaven I do confess the vices of my blood, So justly to your grave ears I'll present How I did thrive in this fair lady's love, And she in mine. -- 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
Ho! now you strike like the blind man;
t'was the boy that stole your meat,
and you'll beat the post. -- 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
I'll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night, stick fiery off indeed. -- William Shakespeare
Gently to hear, kindly to judge. -- 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
Nothing that is so, is so. -- William Shakespeare
More grief to hide than hate to utter love. Polonius, Hamlet. -- William Shakespeare
To persevere
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness: 'tis unmanly grief. -- William Shakespeare
[ ... ] Villain I am none.
Therefore farewell. I see thou knowest me not. -- William Shakespeare
I thought my heart had been wounded with the claws of a lion. -- William Shakespeare
Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief;
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss:
The offender's sorrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the strong offence's cross. -- William Shakespeare
Throw physic to the dogs; I'll none of it. -- 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
Why, courage then! what cannot be avoided
'Twere childish weakness to lament or fear. -- William Shakespeare
Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound reverbs no hollowness. -- William Shakespeare
But it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels, which, by often rumination, wraps me in the most humorous sadness. -- William Shakespeare
That which I would discover
The law of friendship bids me to conceal. -- William Shakespeare
I and my bosom must debate awhile, and then I would no other company. -- William Shakespeare
But where the greater malady is fix'd The lesser is scarce felt. -- William Shakespeare
MIRANDA O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't! PROSPERO 'Tis new to thee. -- William Shakespeare
I will instruct my sorrows to be proud; for grief is proud, and makes his owner stoop. -- William Shakespeare
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks ... -- William Shakespeare
Their lips were four red roses on a stalk. -- William Shakespeare
Small to greater matters must give way. -- William Shakespeare
What's making you sad and your hours so long?
- Not having the thing that makes them short. -- William Shakespeare
Allow not nature more than nature needs. -- William Shakespeare
When clouds are seen wise men put on their cloaks; When great leaves fall then winter is at hand. -- William Shakespeare
When love begins to sicken and decay
It useth an enforced ceremony.
There are no tricks in plain and simple faith:
But hollow men, like horses hot at hand,
Make gallant show, and promise of their mettle. -- William Shakespeare
O, learn to love, the lesson is but plain,
And once made perfect, never lost again. -- 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
Sound drums and trumpets! Farewell sour annoy! For here, I hope, begins our lasting joy. -- William Shakespeare
Fairies use flowers for their charactery. -- William Shakespeare
In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue and white;
Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee;
Fairies use flower for their charactery. -- 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
Kneel not to me.
The pow'r that I have on you is to spare you;
The malice towards you to forgive you. Live,
And deal with others better. -- William Shakespeare
The best quarrels, in the heat, are cursed by those that feel their sharpness. -- William Shakespeare
To sleep perchance to dream -- William Shakespeare
The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children. -- William Shakespeare
A hundred thousand welcomes: I could weep,
And I could laugh; I am light and heavy:
Welcome. -- William Shakespeare
Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course. -- William Shakespeare
As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words. -- William Shakespeare
We were, fair queen, /
Two lads that thought there was no more behind /
But such a day to-morrow as to-day, /
And to be boy eternal. -- William Shakespeare
I'll find a day to massacre them all
And raze their faction and their family,
The cruel father and his traitorous sons,
To whom I sued for my dear son's life,
And make them know what 'tis to let a queen
Kneel in the streets and beg for grace in vain. -- 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
I had rather chop this hand off at a blow,
And with the other fling it at thy face. -- 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 Shakespeare
May one be pardoned and retain th' offense? -- William Shakespeare
The present eye praises the present object. -- William Shakespeare
The Foole doth thinke he is wise, but the wiseman knowes himselfe to be a Foole. -- William Shakespeare
You wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange wife and a fosset-seller. -- William Shakespeare
If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit,
The one's for use, the other useth it. -- William Shakespeare
No longer mourn for me when I am dead Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell Give warning to the world that I am fled From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell. -- William Shakespeare
An overflow of good converts to bad. -- William Shakespeare
Men should be what they seem; Or those that be not, would they might seem none!. -- William Shakespeare
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, 135 The instruments of darkness tell us truths, 136 Win us with honest trifles, to betray 's 137 In deepest consequence. - 138 -- William Shakespeare
I will praise any man that will praise me. -- William Shakespeare
Discuss unto me: art thou officer, Or art thou base, common, and popular? -- William Shakespeare
Now, good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both! -- William Shakespeare
Wait for the season when to cast good counsels upon subsiding passion. -- William Shakespeare
But dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath. -- William Shakespeare
World, world, O world! But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee/ Life would not yield to age. -- William Shakespeare
Hereafter, in a better world than this, I shall desire more love and knowledge of you -- William Shakespeare
I'll say she looks as clear as morning roses newly washed with dew. -- William Shakespeare
Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius! Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex: We cannot fight for love, as men ay do; We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo. I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell, To die upon the hand I love so well. -- 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
With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out -- William Shakespeare
Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel? Why, now let
me die, for I have lived long enough. -- William Shakespeare
Ha. "Against my will I am sent to bid you come into dinner." There's a double meaning in that.
-Benedick (Much Ado) -- William Shakespeare
Come, sir, come,
I'll wrestle with you in my strength of love.
Look, here I have you, thus I let you go,
And give you to the gods. -- William Shakespeare
When I saw you
I fell in love, and
you smiled
because you knew. -- William Shakespeare
I am gone, though I am here. There is no love in you. Nay, I pray you let me go. -- William Shakespeare
I'll have no husband, if you be not he. -- William Shakespeare
And, if you love me, as I think you do, let's kiss and part, for we have much to do -- William Shakespeare
I'll make my heaven in a lady's lap -- William Shakespeare
Such is my love, to thee I so belong,
That for thy right myself will bear all wrong. -- William Shakespeare
QUINCE
Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.
FLUTE
Here, Peter Quince.
QUINCE
Flute, you must take Thisby on you.
FLUTE
What is Thisby? a wandering knight?
QUINCE
It is the lady that Pyramus must love.
FLUTE
Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming. -- William Shakespeare
[b]Viola:[/b] I pity you.
[b]Olivia:[/b] That's a degree to love. -- 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
O, if I say, you look upon this verse,
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
But let your love even with my life decay;
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone. -- 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
There is none of my uncle's marks upon you; he taught me how to know a man in love; in which cage of rushes I am sure you are not prisoner. -- William Shakespeare
I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say - I love you -- William Shakespeare
I have pursued her, as love hath pursued me -- William Shakespeare
I do love nothing in the world so well as you- is not that strange? -- William Shakespeare
Lucentio: I read that I profess, the Art of Love.
Bianca: And may you prove, sir, master of your art!
Lucentio: While you, sweet dear, prove mistress of my heart! -- William Shakespeare
I love thee; none but thee, and thou deservest it -- William Shakespeare
I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest. -- 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
I have lov'd her ever since I saw her; and still I see her beautiful -- William Shakespeare
I humbly do beseech of your pardon, For too much loving you -- William Shakespeare
Love, which teacheth me that thou and I am one -- William Shakespeare
I love you more than word can wield the matter, Dearer than eye-sight, space and liberty -- 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
Viola: I pity you
Olivia: That's a degree to love -- William Shakespeare
DEMETRIUS
... do I not in plainest truth
Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?
HELENA
And even for that do I love you the more. -- William Shakespeare
I can express no kinder sign of love, than this kind kiss. -- William Shakespeare
That you do love me, I am nothing jealous. -- William Shakespeare
Then I defy you, stars! -- William Shakespeare
What? do I love her, that I desire to hear her speak again, and feast upon her eyes -- William Shakespeare
I love thee, and it is my love that speaks -- 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
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
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
Thou art all the comfort,
The Gods will diet me with. -- William Shakespeare
Few things loves better Than to abhor himself. -- William Shakespeare
Why, I can smile and murder whiles I smile,
And cry 'content' to that which grieves my heart,
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
And frame my face for all occasions -- 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
In struggling with misfortunes lies the true proof of virtue. -- William Shakespeare
So we'll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh at gilded butterflies. -- William Shakespeare
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man
That function is smothered in surmise,
And nothing is but what is not. -- William Shakespeare
So full of shapes is fancy That it alone is high fantastical. -- William Shakespeare
Those 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-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. -- William Shakespeare
Farewell, sweet playfellow. -- 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 doth bear a part.
These are certain signs to know
Faithful friend from flattering foe. -- William Shakespeare
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly. -- William Shakespeare
They love least that let men know their loves. -- William Shakespeare
But hear thee, Gratiano:
Thou art too wild, too rude, and bold of voice -
Parts that become thee happily enough,
And in such eyes as ours appear no faults,
But where thou art not known, why, there they show
Something too liberal. -- William Shakespeare
We are advertis'd by our loving friends. -- William Shakespeare
Who could refrain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make love known? -- William Shakespeare
Give me that man that is not passion's slave, and I will wear him in my heart's core, in my heart of heart, as I do thee. -- 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; for beauty is a witch
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood. -- William Shakespeare
Thy friendship makes us fresh. -- William Shakespeare
Friendship is full of dregs. -- 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
I have unclasp'd to thee the book even of my secret soul. -- William Shakespeare
There is flattery in friendship - William Shakespeare -- William Shakespeare
So we grew together like to a double cherry, seeming parted, but yet an union in partition, two lovely berries molded on one stem. -- 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