William Shakespeare Quotes

I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny, who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered.

All pride is willing pride.

When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.

O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

The labor we delight in physics [cures] pain.

I may neither choose who I would, nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father.

Winter, which, being full of care, makes summer's welcome thrice more wish'd, more rare.

This day's black fate on more days doth depend; This but begins the woe, others must end.

When I have plucked the rose, I cannot give it vital growth again, It needs must wither. I'll smell it on the tree.

For grief is crowned with consolation.

Be still prepared for death: and death or life shall thereby be the sweeter.

Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

A king of infinite space

I am falser than vows made in wine.

All things that are, are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.

For thou hast given me in this beauteous face A world of earthly blessings to my soul, If sympathy of love unite our thoughts.

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!

He that hath the steerage of my course, Direct my sail.

It is the cowish terror of his spirit that dares not undertake; he'll not feel wrongs which tie him to an answer.

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you-trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say, the whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.

Is it not strange, that sheep's guts should hale souls out of men's bodies!

Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you.

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.

But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool.

I thank God I am not a woman, to be touched in so many giddy offences as He hath generally taxed their whole their whole sex withal.

Thrust your head into the public street, to gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces.

So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

There is no slander in an allowed fool, though he do nothing but rail.

I may command where I adore.

Knit your hearts with an unslipping knot.

She's good, being gone.

Death is a fearful thing.

Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it; the one brings fuel, the other blows it till it burns clear.

God send everyone their heart's desire!

Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear

I see a man's life is a tedious one.

You are not worth the dust which the rude wind Blows in your face.

The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day Is crept into the bosom of the sea.

If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts.

The attempt and not the deed confounds us.

I will make a Star-chamber matter of it.

Take but degree away, untune that string, and hark, what discord follows!

O, she's warm! If this be magic, let it be an art Lawful as eating.

A pox o’ your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!

Be advised; Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot That it do singe yourself: we may outrun, By violent swiftness, that which we run at, And lose by over-running. Know you not, The fire that mounts the liquor til run o'er, In seeming to augment it wastes it?

Fairies use flowers for their charactery.

We must every one be a man of his own fancy.