The Beauty and Tragedy of Human Life : William Shakespeare Quotes

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. William Shakespeare, 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. William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
• For she had eyes and chose me. William Shakespeare, Othello

• Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind. William Shakespeare
• Beware the ides of March. William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
• Men in rage strike those that wish them best. William Shakespeare, Othello
• One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.  William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• Madness in great ones must not unwatched go. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• This above all: to thine own self be true. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world. William Shakespeare
• Some are born great, others achieve greatness. William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
• There’s an old saying that applies to me: you can’t lose a game if you don’t play the game. William Shakespeare
• Conscience doth make cowards of us all. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast. William Shakespeare

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

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

• Sweets to the sweet. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions! William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• Words, words, words. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• So wise so young, they say, do never live long. William Shakespeare, Richard III
• Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. William Shakespeare
• Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow. William Shakespeare
• I do love nothing in the world so well as you- is not that strange? William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
• These violent delights have violent ends. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
• If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• Better three hours too soon than a minute too late. William Shakespeare, 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. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• Our doubts are traitors,
  and make us lose the good we oft might win,
  by fearing to attempt.
  William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
• When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools. William Shakespeare, King Lear
• In time we hate that which we often fear. William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

• Expectation is the root of all heartache. William Shakespeare
• I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• Hell is empty and all the devils are here. William Shakespeare, The Tempest
• We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. William Shakespeare, The Tempest
• The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. William Shakespeare, As You Like It
• Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well

• The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
• Brevity is the soul of wit. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• We know what we are, but not what we may be. William Shakespeare

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!
  William Shakespeare, Hamlet

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

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

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

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

Love Quotes by William Shakespeare

• For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo. William Shakespeare
• The course of true love never did run smooth. William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
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• Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs. William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
• I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

• Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. William Shakespeare, 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…
  William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare
• Thus with a kiss I die. William Shakespeare, 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!  William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare
• 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.
  William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, 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!
  William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
• You are a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings
  and soar with them above a common bound.
  William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
• I pray you, do not fall in love with me, for I am falser than vows made in wine. William Shakespeare, 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. William Shakespeare
• By the pricking of my thumbs,
  Something wicked this way comes.
  William Shakespeare, Macbeth
• These violent delights have violent ends
  And in their triump die, like fire and powder
  Which, as they kiss, consume
  William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
• Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires. William Shakespeare, Macbeth
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• But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
  It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
• Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow,
  That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
  William Shakespeare
• 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.
  William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
• Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• To weep is to make less the depth of grief. William Shakespeare,
• Look like the innocent flower,
  But be the serpent under it.
  William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
• Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly. then your love would also change. William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare
• My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• …Who could refrain,
  That had a heart to love, and in that heart
  Courage to make love known?
  William Shakespeare, Macbeth
• If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking and you beat love down. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
• Are you sure
  That we are awake?
  It seems to me
  That yet we sleep, we dream.
  William Shakespeare, 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. William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
• No legacy is so rich as honesty. William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well
• Go wisely and slowly. Those who rush stumble and fall. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
• Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them. William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
• Be great in act, as you have been in thought. William Shakespeare, King John
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• What’s done cannot be undone. William Shakespeare, Macbeth
• Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me. William Shakespeare
• My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break. William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew
• Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit. William Shakespeare, 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? William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find. William Shakespeare, 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! William Shakespeare
• You speak an infinite deal of nothing. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
• Though she be but little, she is fierce! William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Lord, what fools these mortals be! William Shakespeare
• I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it. William Shakespeare
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• Dispute not with her: she is lunatic. William Shakespeare
• The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers. William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
• And yet,to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays. William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me. William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
• Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak. William Shakespeare, 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. William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
• When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married. William Shakespeare
• For which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me? William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
• I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue. William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, 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!
  William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, 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.
  William Shakespeare, Sonnets

William Shakespeare Quotes on Images

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

Hell is empty and all the devils are here. William Shakespeare – The tempest

Original Photo by Johannes Plenio

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go. William Shakespeare . Hamlet.

To thine own self be true. William Shakespeare.

If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone. William Shakespeare

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