The Beauty and Tragedy of Human Life : William Shakespeare Quotes

Last modified: March 25, 2020

There is almost nothing that hasn’t been said about Shakespeare’s work. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the history of the English language and his influence is evident on anything, from theater to literature and from movies to the English language itself. His words are full of wisdom to help the humankind live a more conscious and better life. A very detailed biography of William Shakespeare can be found on wikipedia.

This is a collection of William Shakespeare’s quotes that were included in many of his plays and literally changed the way we conceive the world and the human experience today.

Short William Shakespeare Quotes

Listen to many, speak to a few. Hamlet
Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings. Julius Caesar
For she had eyes and chose me. Othello

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.
Beware the ides of March. Julius Caesar
Men in rage strike those that wish them best. Othello
One may smile, and smile, and be a villain. Hamlet

To thine own self be true. William Shakespeare.

Madness in great ones must not unwatched go. Hamlet
This above all: to thine own self be true. Hamlet
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.
Some are born great, others achieve greatness. Twelfth Night
There’s an old saying that applies to me: you can’t lose a game if you don’t play the game.
Conscience doth make cowards of us all. Hamlet
Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.

I am not bound to please thee with my answers. The Merchant of Venice
O teach me how I should forget to think. Romeo and Juliet

Men in rage strike those that wish them best. William Shakespeare

Sweets to the sweet. Hamlet
When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions! Hamlet
Words, words, words. Hamlet
So wise so young, they say, do never live long. Richard III
Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow.
I do love nothing in the world so well as you- is not that strange? Much Ado About Nothing
These violent delights have violent ends. Romeo and Juliet
If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone. Hamlet
Better three hours too soon than a minute too late. The Merry Wives of Windsor

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. William Shakespeare – Hamlet

Wisdom and LIfe William Shakespeare Quotes

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Hamlet
Our doubts are traitors,
and make us lose the good we oft might win,
by fearing to attempt.
Measure for Measure
When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools. King Lear
In time we hate that which we often fear. Antony and Cleopatra

Expectation is the root of all heartache.
I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. Hamlet
Hell is empty and all the devils are here. The Tempest
We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. The Tempest
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. As You Like It
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. All’s Well That Ends Well
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. Julius Caesar
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Hamlet
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
As You Like It
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
Julius Caesar

Brevity is the soul of wit.Hamlet
We know what we are, but not what we may be.

If music be the food of love, play on. William Shakespeare – Twelfth night

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.–Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d!
Hamlet

We are such stuff as dreams are mad on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. William Shakespeare – The tempest

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Don’t waste your love on somebody, who doesn’t value it. Romeo and Juliet
There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Hamlet

Life … is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. The Merchant of Venice
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind. William Shakespeare

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Love Quotes by William Shakespeare

For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
The course of true love never did run smooth. A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs. Romeo and Juliet
If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
Twelfth Night
I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum. Hamlet
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night. Romeo and Juliet

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night;
Give me my Romeo; and, when I shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night…
Romeo and Juliet
Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
Hamlet

Men in rage strike those that wish them best. William Shakespeare

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Short and Meaningful Life Quotes

Oh teach me how I should forget to think. William Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet

When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
Romeo and Juliet
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
Romeo and Juliet

My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.
Thus with a kiss I die. Romeo and Juliet
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Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake- its everything except what it is! Romeo and Juliet
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father refuse thy name, thou art thyself thou not a montegue, what is montegue? tis nor hand nor foot nor any other part
belonging to a man
What is in a name?
That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,
So Romeo would were he not Romeo called retain such dear perfection to which he owes without that title,
Romeo, Doth thy name!
And for that name which is no part of thee, take all thyself.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring barque,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Sonnets
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And too often is his gold complexion dimm’d:
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or natures changing course untrimm’d;
By thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
Sonnets
Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Sonnets
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.
O, that I were a glove upon that hand
That I might touch that cheek!
Romeo and Juliet
You are a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings
and soar with them above a common bound.
Romeo and Juliet
I pray you, do not fall in love with me, for I am falser than vows made in wine.As You Like It

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt. William Shakespeare

Famous Quotes by William Shakespeare

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Macbeth
These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triump die, like fire and powder
Which, as they kiss, consume
Romeo and Juliet
Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.Macbeth
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But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Romeo and Juliet
Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.
The Merchant of Venice
Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t. Hamlet
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Hamlet
To weep is to make less the depth of grief.
Look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under it.
Macbeth
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth

The course of true love never did run smooth. William Shakespeare

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,-
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Much Ado About Nothing
Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly. then your love would also change. Romeo and Juliet
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food,
hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases,
heal’d by the same means, warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?
If you prick us, do we not bleed? If
you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go. Hamlet
…Who could refrain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make love known?
Macbeth
If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking and you beat love down. Romeo and Juliet
Are you sure
That we are awake?
It seems to me
That yet we sleep, we dream.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Inspirational Quotes by William Shakespeare

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once. Julius Caesar
No legacy is so rich as honesty. All’s Well That Ends Well
Go wisely and slowly. Those who rush stumble and fall. Romeo and Juliet
Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them. Twelfth Night
Be great in act, as you have been in thought. King John
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What’s done cannot be undone. Macbeth
Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.
My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break. The Taming of the Shrew
Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit. Twelfth Night
What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Hamlet
Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find. The Passionate Pilgrim

What’s done cannot be undone. William Shakespeare. Macbeth.

Photo by Ganapathy Kumar

Funny William Shakespeare Quotes

I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed!
You speak an infinite deal of nothing. The Merchant of Venice
Though she be but little, she is fierce! A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.
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Dispute not with her: she is lunatic.
The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers. King Henry VI
I can see he’s not in your good books,’ said the messenger.
‘No, and if he were I would burn my library.
Much Ado About Nothing
And yet,to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me. Much Ado About Nothing
Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak. As You Like It
He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man. He that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him. Much Ado About Nothing
When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.
For which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me? Much Ado About Nothing
I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue. Much Ado About Nothing

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. William Shakespeare – Julius Caesar

Long William Shakespeare Quotes

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover and the poet
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet’s eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
O serpent heart hid with a flowering face!
Did ever a dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant, feind angelical, dove feather raven, wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of devinest show, just opposite
to what thou justly seemest – A dammed saint, an honourable villain!
Romeo and Juliet
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and, by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub.
Hamlet
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
Sonnets

William Shakespeare Quotes on Images

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You can’t lose a game if you don’t play the game. William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet.

This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man. William Shakespeare. Hamlet.

Original Photo by Jordan Steranka