William Shakespeare Quotes

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

Slander, whose whisper over the world's diameter, as level as the cannon to its blank, transports its poisoned shot.

The world must be peopled!

O the world is but a word; were it all yours to give it in a breath, how quickly were it gone!

Love goes toward love.

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.

My cousin's a fool, and thou art another.

In thy face I see the map of honour, truth and loyalty.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought.

O villains, vipers, dogs, easily won to fawn on any man!

Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.

I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch.

Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say I; every man to his business.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

Flout 'em, and scout 'em; and scout 'em, and flout 'em; / Thought is free.

O Death, made proud with pure and princely beauty!

A great cause of the night is lack of the sun.

Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men?

I may chance have some odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me, because I have railed so long against marriage: but doth not the appetite alter? a man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age. Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the career of his humour? No, the world must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.

O, while you live, tell truth, and shame the Devil!

Blind is his love, and best befits the dark.

Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.

Hear the meaning within the word.

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.

Let's go hand in hand, not one before another.

Refrain to-night; And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence, the next more easy; For use almost can change the stamp of nature, And either master the devil or throw him out With wondrous potency.

O call not me to justify the wrong, That thy unkindness lays upon my heart, Wound me not with thine eye but with thy tongue, Use power with power, and slay me not by art.

Let none presume To wear an undeserved dignity. O that estates, degrees, and offices Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honour Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!

There is nothing serious in Mortality

I care not, a man can die but once; we owe God and death.

Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens to the which our wills are gardeners.

My brain more busy than the labouring spider Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies.

Let's meet as little as we can

My love is thine to teach; teach it but how, And thou shalt see how apt it is to learn. Any hard lesson that may do thee good.

Is she not passing fair?

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

Hamlet: Lady, shall I lie in your lap? Ophelia: No, my lord. Hamlet: DId you think I meant country matters? Ophelia: I think nothing, my lord. Hamlet: That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs. Ophelia: What is, my lord? Hamlet: Nothing.

the fire seven times tried this; seven times tried that judgement is that did never choose amiss some there be that shadows kiss; such have but a shadows bliss, there be fool alive, i wis silverd o'er, and so was this Take what wife you will to bed I will ever be your head. So be gone; you are sped.

Aand in the end, Having my freedom, boast of nothing else But that I was a journeyman to grief?

Their manners are more gentle, kind, than of Our human generation you shall find.

My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw.

Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art, As those whose beauties proudly make them cruel; For well thou know'st to my dear doting heart Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel.

Have more than you show, Speak less than you know.

My only love sprung from my only hate.

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.

With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out

For this relief, much thanks

I am a man more sinned against than sinning