William Shakespeare Quotes

Through tattered clothes great vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold and the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks. Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it.

ROMEO There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls, Doing more murders in this loathsome world, Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell. I sell thee poison; thou hast sold me none. Farewell: buy food, and get thyself in flesh. Come, cordial and not poison, go with me To Juliet's grave; for there must I use thee.

I take thee at thy word: Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized; Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god.

And some that smile have in their hearts, I fear, millions of mischiefs.

My soul is in the sky.

Your gentleness shall force More than your force move us to gentleness.

Thyself shall see the act; For, as thou urgest justice, be assured Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desir'st.

A knot you are of damned bloodsuckers.

What need the bridge much broader than the flood?

Read o'er this And after, this, and then to breakfast with What appetite you have.

Wisely, I say, I am a bachelor.

Though justice be thy plea consider this, that in the course of justice none of us should see salvation.

And when I am forgotten, as I shall be, And asleep in dull cold marble, where no mention Of me must be heard of, say, I taught thee.

So curses all Eve's daughters of what complexion soever.

By-and-by is easily said.

A good heart 'is worth gold.

Flower of this purple dye, Hit with Cupid's archery, Sink in apple of his eye.

All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told.

I dreamt my lady came and found me dead . . . . . . . . . . . . And breathed such life with kisses in my lips That I revived and was an emperor.

Sweet Beatrice, wouldst thou come when I called thee? BEATRICE Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me. BENEDICK O, stay but till then! BEATRICE 'Then' is spoken; fare you well now... (Much Ado About Nothing)

Do you take me for a sponge, my lord? hamlet: Ay, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. rosencrantz: I understand you not, my lord. hamlet: I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

love is blind and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit

Free from gross passion or of mirth of anger constant spirit, not swerving with the blood, garnish'd and deck'd in modest compliment, not working with the eye without the ear, and but in purged judgement trusting neither? Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem.

Oh, injurious love, that respites me a life, whose very comfort is still a dying horror

Where the bee sucks, there suck I In the cow-slip's bell i lie There I couch when owls do cry

I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable.

I have almost forgotten the taste of fears: The time has been, my senses would have cool’d to hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir as life were in’t: I have supt full with horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, cannot once start me.

Can I go forward when my heart is here? Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.

Nothing is so common as the wish to be remarkable.(attributed to)

Strikes deeper, grows with more pernicious root.

Exit, pursued by a bear.

I love you more than word can wield the matter, Dearer than eye-sight, space and liberty

Sometimes when we are labeled, when we are branded our brand becomes our calling.

I had rather be a toad, and live upon the vapor of a dungeon than keep a corner in the thing I love for others uses.

Care for us! True, indeed! They ne'er cared for us yet: suffer us to famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich, and provide more piercing statutes daily to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear us.

Strong reasons make strong actions.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!

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.

Ships are but boards, sailors but men; there be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves, I mean pirates, and thenthere is the peril of waters, winds, and rocks.

And be these juggling friends no more believ'd, That palter with us in a double sense; That keep the word of promise to our ear And break it to our hope.

Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart, or in the head?

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.

No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck So many blows upon this face of mine And made no deeper wounds?

Nothing in his life became him like leaving it.

The apprehension of the good Gives but the greater feeling to the worse.

Time ... thou ceaseless lackey to eternity.

Hopeless and helpless doth Egeon wend, But to procrastinate his liveless end.