Famous Quotes by William Shakespeare
Below are famous quotes by William Shakespeare - Greatest English dramatist & poet (1564 - 1616).
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
As much or more we should ourselves complain.
Action is eloquence.
And since you know you cannot see yourself,
so well as by reflection, I, your glass,
will modestly discover to yourself,
that of yourself which you yet know not of.
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
Be great in act, as you have been in thought.
Brevity is the soul of wit.
Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood.
Each present joy or sorrow seems the chief.
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
For they are yet ear-kissing arguments.
Glory is like a circle in the water,
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,
Till by broad spreading it disperses to naught.
God bless thee; and put meekness in thy mind, love, charity, obedience, and true duty!
He is not great who is not greatly good.
He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself.
His life was gentle; and the elements
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!
How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees.
How use doth breed a habit in a man.
I am not bound to please thee with my answers.
I am wealthy in my friends.
I dote on his very absence.
I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience.
I had rather have a fool make me merry, than experience make me sad.
I hate ingratitude more in a man
than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,
or any taint of vice whose strong corruption
inhabits our frail blood.
I must be cruel only to be kind;
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
I must be cruel, only to be kind.
I pray thee cease thy counsel,
Which falls into mine ears as profitless
as water in a sieve.
I pray you bear me henceforth from the noise and rumour of the field, where I may think the remnant of my thoughts in peace, and part of this body and my soul with contemplation and devout desires.
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
I wish you well and so I take my leave,
I Pray you know me when we meet again.
Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.
In a false quarrel there is no true valour.
In false quarrels there is no true valor.
In time we hate that which we often fear.
It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.
It is meant that noble minds keep ever with their likes; for who so firm that cannot be seduced.
It is not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after.
It is the mind that makes the body rich; and as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, so honor peereth in the meanest habit.
Lady you bereft me of all words,
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins,
And there is such confusion in my powers.
Let the coming hour overflow with joy, and let pleasure drown the brim.
Life is a tale told by an idiot -- full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end.
Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.
Mine honour is my life; both grow in one; take honour from me and my life is done.
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.
Oft expectation fails, and most oft where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest; and despair most sits.
Oh God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!
Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners.
Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.
Our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie.
Pity is the virtue of the law, and none but tyrants use it cruelly.
Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear.
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
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.
Simply the thing that I am shall make me live.
So may he rest, his faults lie gently on him!
Some men never seem to grow old. Always active in thought, always ready to adopt new ideas, they are never chargeable with foggyism. Satisfied, yet ever dissatisfied, settled, yet ever unsettled, they always enjoy the best of what is, are the first to find the best of what will be.
Strong reasons make strong actions.
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; the thief doth fear each bush an officer.
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.
Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like a toad, though ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in its head.
The course of true love was never easy.
The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords, in such a just and charitable war.
The soul of this man is in his clothes.
The trust I have is in mine innocence,
and therefore am I bold and resolute.
Their understanding
Begins to swell and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shores
That now lie foul and muddy.
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
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.
Thou art all the comfort,
The Gods will diet me with.
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge of thine own cause.
Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.
Thy words, I grant are bigger, for I wear not, my dagger in my mouth.
To be a well-flavored man is the gift of fortune, but to write or read comes by nature.
To thine own self be true -; And it must follow as the night the day; Thou canst not be false to any man
Virtue and genuine graces in themselves speak what no words can utter.
We do not keep the outward form of order, where there is deep disorder in the mind.
We know what we are, but not what we may be.
When griping grief the heart doth wound,
and doleful dumps the mind opresses,
then music, with her silver sound,
with speedy help doth lend redress.
When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know she lies.
When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions.
When we are born, we cry, that we are come
To this great stage of fools.
While thou livest keep a good tongue in thy head.
You cram these words into mine ears against the stomach of my sense.
Your face is a book, where men may read strange matters.
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