William Shakespeare Quotes

Heaven give you many, many merry days.

Under the greenwood tree, Who loves to lie with me And tune his merry note, Unto the sweet bird's throat; Come hither, come hither, come hither. Here shall he see No enemy But winter and rough weather.

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

If I can catch him once upon the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.

The will of man is by his reason sway'd.

Happy thou art not; for what thou hast not, still thou strivest to get; and what thou hast, forgettest.

You kiss by th' book.

To show an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy.

Demetrius: Villain, what hast thou done? Aaron: That which thou canst not undo. Chiron: Thou hast undone our mother. Aaron: Villain, I have done thy mother.

Let me have men about me that are fat... Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious.

Wise men never sit and wail their loss, but cheerily seek how to redress their harms.

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

England is safe, if true within itself.

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

What valor were it, when a cur doth grin, for one to thrust his hand between his teeth, when he might spurn him with his foot away?

O sleep! O gentle sleep! Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down And steep my senses in forgetfulness? Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great, Under the canopies of costly state, And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody?

That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou seest the twilight of such day, As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by-and-by black night doth take away.

Eternity was in our lips and eyes.

O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do, not knowing what they do.

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

Beauty lives with kindness.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.

These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, Which as they kiss consume. The sweetest honey Is loathsome in his own deliciousness And in the taste confounds the appetite. Therefore love moderately; long love doth so; Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

Then is it sin to rush into the secret house of death. Ere death dare come to us?

A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?

So now I have confessed that he is thine, And I my self am mortgaged to thy will, My self I'll forfeit, so that other mine, Thou wilt restore to be my comfort still.

Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye Than twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet, And I am proof against their enmity.

Under the colour of commending him I have access my own love to prefer; But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy, To be corrupted with my worthless gifts.

A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!

All offences come from the heart.

thou art the best o' the cut-throats

Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low.

How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!

I know a place where the wild thyme blows, where oxlips and the nodding violet grows.

Many that are not mad have, sure, more lack of reason.

O sleep! O gentle sleep! Nature's soft nurse.

So are you to my thoughts as food to life, or as sweet seasoned showers are to the ground.

Thou call'st me dog before thou hadst a cause, But since I am a dog, beware my fangs.

I will make thee think thy swan a crow.

Every great drama has its foreshadow.

Unbidden guests Are often welcomest when they are gone.

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

In the modesty of fearful duty, I read as much as from the rattling tongue of saucy and audacious eloquence.

Happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending.

He is white-livered and red-faced.

There was a star danced, and under that was I born.

I hold my peace, sir? no; No, I will speak as liberal as the north; Let heaven and men and devils, let them all, All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak.