William Shakespeare Quotes

In a false quarrel there is no true valour.

For they are yet ear-kissing arguments.

I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart: but the saying is true `The empty vessel makes the greatest sound`.

I wish you well and so I take my leave, I Pray you know me when we meet again.

God bless thee; and put meekness in thy mind, love, charity, obedience, and true duty!

How use doth breed a habit in a man.

I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.

Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.

How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees.

I pray thee cease thy counsel, Which falls into mine ears as profitless as water in a sieve.

Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood.

Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, Till by broad spreading it disperses to naught.

I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience.

I am not bound to please thee with my answers.

In time we hate that which we often fear.

I hate ingratitude more in a man than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness, or any taint of vice whose strong corruption inhabits our frail blood.

Action is eloquence.

And since you know you cannot see yourself, so well as by reflection, I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself, that of yourself which you yet know not of.

His life was gentle; and the elements So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up, And say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!

Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger constant in 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.

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.

In peace there`s nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility.

I pray you bear me henceforth from the noise and rumour of the field, where I may think the remnant of my thoughts in peace, and part of this body and my soul with contemplation and devout desires.

Assume a virtue, if you have it not.

And thus I clothe my naked villainy With old odd ends, stol`n forth of holy writ; And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind Thou art not so unkind, As man`s ingratitude.

A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry; But were we burdened with like weight of pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain.

Be great in act, as you have been in thought.

I dote on his very absence.

He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself.

Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.

Soft pity enters an iron gate.

Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,

The silence often of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails.

Simply the thing that I am shall make me live.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

What a deformed thief this fashion is.

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 take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.

When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain

`Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.

Fight till the last gasp.

Ingratitude is monstrous

By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death will seize the doctor too.

Absence from those we love is self from self - a deadly banishment.

Mine honor is my life; both grow in one; Take honor from me, and my life is done.

Reflection is the business of man; a sense of his state is his first duty: but who remembereth himself in joy? Is it not in mercy then that sorrow is allotted unto us?

Every man has business and desire,

Our doubts are traitors,

Commit the oldest sins the newest kind of ways

The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

Days of absence, sad and dreary, Clothed in sorrow`s dark array, Days of absence, I am weary; She I love is far away.

Good wine needs no bush

Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.

Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.

Now, good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both!

I thank God I am as honest as any man living that is an old man and no honester than I.

What fates impose, that men must needs abide; It boots not to resist both wind and tide

The miserable hath no other medicine but only hope

He jests at scars that never felt a wound

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.

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

The jury, passing on the prisoner`s life, may in the sworn twelve have a thief or two guiltier than him they try

No legacy is so rich as honesty.

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!

Every man has his fault, and honesty is his.

Honesty is the best policy. If I lose mine honor, I lose myself.

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.

Thought is free.

Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.

Here will be an old abusing of God`s patience and the king`s English.

Sweet mercy is nobility`s true badge.

This England never did, nor never shall,

We burn daylight.

Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale

Strong reasons make strong actions.

Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.

Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

Having nothing, nothing can he lose.

He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat.

He that dies pays all debts

The quality of mercy is not strain`d,

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

O, how this spring of love resembleth

Frailty, thy name is woman!

My grief lies all within, And these external manners of lament Are merely shadows to the unseen grief That swells with silence in the tortured soul

The course of true love never did run smooth.

The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed- It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.

The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords, in such a just and charitable war.

There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow

True hope is swift, and flies with swallow`s wings;

What`s gone and what`s past help

Brevity is the soul of wit.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself Till by broad spreading it disperse to naught

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

Boldness be my friend.

Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart.

I was adored once too.

Who wooed in haste and means to wed at leisure

What need I fear of thee? But yet I`ll make assurance double sure, and take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live; That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, And sleep in spite of thunder

Things won are done; joy`s soul lies in the doing.

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall

The attempt and not the deed confounds us.

As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.

There is not one wise man in twenty that will praise himself.

If all the year were playing holidays; To sport would be as tedious as to work.

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work.

Pray you now, forget and forgive.

So our virtues Lie in the interpretation of the time

Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones.

Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.