William Shakespeare Quotes on Man (261 Quotes)

Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.

Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare, To digg the dust encloased heare Blest be the man that spares thes stones, And curst be he that moves my bones.

Cry the man mercy, love him, take his offer;
Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer.

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.

Now, if these men have defeated the law
and outrun native punishment, though they can outstrip men they
have no wings to fly from God: war is His beadle, war is His
vengeance; so that here men are punish'd for before-breach of the
King's laws in now the King's quarrel.

Is't possible that so short a time can alter the
condition of a man?

Well then, take a good heart and counterfeit to be a man.

He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.

I dare do all that may become a man Who dares do more is none.

O, the difference of man and man!

Now therefore be it known to noble Lewis
That Henry, sole possessor of my love,
Is, of a king, become a banish'd man,
And forc'd to live in Scotland a forlorn;
While proud ambitious Edward Duke of York
Usurps the regal title and the seat
Of England's true-anointed lawful King.

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.

Who can be wise, amazed, temperate, and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment No man. ... who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage to make his love known.

For as a surfeit of the sweetest things The deepest loathing to the stomach brings, Or as tie heresies that men do leave Are hated most of those they did deceive, So thou, my surfeit and my heresy, Of all be hated, but the most of me.

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

That you have wrong'd me doth appear in this:
You have condemn'd and noted Lucius Pella
For taking bribes here of the Sardians,
Wherein my letters, praying on his side,
Because I knew the man, were slighted off.

'Tis said, man; and farewell.

The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.

My meaning in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me that he is sufficient.

Like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring when a was naked, he was, for all the world, like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife.

Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither Ripeness is all.

His life was gentle, and the elements So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, This was a man

Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.

But you are no such man; you
are rather point-device in your accoutrements, as loving yourself
than seeming the lover of any other.

Your worship in that sense may call him man.

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot in sea, and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.

They say men are molded out of faults, and for the most, become much more the better for being a little bad. Measure For Measure

I'll hold thee any wager,
When we are both accoutred like young men,
I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
And wear my dagger with the braver grace,
And speak between the change of man and boy
With a reed voice; and turn two mincing steps
Into a manly stride; and speak of frays
Like a fine bragging youth; and tell quaint lies,
How honourable ladies sought my love,
Which I denying, they fell sick and died-
I could not do withal.

No lord of thine, thou haught insulting man,
Nor no man's lord; I have no name, no tide-
No, not that name was given me at the font-
But 'tis usurp'd.

That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man, if with his tongue he cannot win a woman.

I care not, a man can die but once we owe God and death.

What, man, defy the devil. Consider, he's an enemy to mankind.

John, to stop Arthur's tide in the whole,
Hath willingly departed with a part;
And France, whose armour conscience buckled on,
Whom zeal and charity brought to the field
As God's own soldier, rounded in the ear
With that same purpose-changer, that sly devil,
That broker that still breaks the pate of faith,
That daily break-vow, he that wins of all,
Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids,
Who having no external thing to lose
But the word 'maid,' cheats the poor maid of that;
That smooth-fac'd gentleman, tickling commodity,
Commodity, the bias of the world-
The world, who of itself is peised well,
Made to run even upon even ground,
Till this advantage, this vile-drawing bias,
This sway of motion, this commodity,
Makes it take head from all indifferency,
From all direction, purpose, course, intent-
And this same bias, this commodity,
This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word,
Clapp'd on the outward eye of fickle France,
Hath drawn him from his own determin'd aid,
From a resolv'd and honourable war,
To a most base and vile-concluded peace.

Now stand you on the top of happy hours,
And many maiden gardens yet unset,
With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers,
Much liker than your painted counterfeit:
So should the lines of life that life repair
Which this, Time's pencil, or my pupil pen
Neither in inward worth nor outward fair
Can make you live your self in eyes of men.

'Tis my vocation, Hal 'tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation.

Women nearest; but men, men are the things themselves.

Where is this rash and most unfortunate man.

Fashion wears out more clothes than the man.

You were us'd
To say extremities was the trier of spirits;
That common chances common men could bear;
That when the sea was calm all boats alike
Show'd mastership in floating; fortune's blows,
When most struck home, being gentle wounded craves
A noble cunning.

To say the truth, this fact was infamous
And ill beseeming any common man,
Much more a knight, a captain, and a leader.

And thereof came it that the man was mad.

Before we make election, give me leave
To show some reason, of no little force,
That York is most unmeet of any man.

Child Roland to the dark tower came, His word was still, Fie, foh and fum, I smell the blood of a British man.

Those men are happy; and so are all
are near her.

Why, man, they did make love to this employment!

I think thou dost;
And for I know thou'rt full of love and honesty
And weigh'st thy words before thou givest them breath,
Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more;
For such things in a false disloyal knave
Are tricks of custom; but in a man that's just
They're close dilations, working from the heart,
That passion cannot rule.

And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus;
Were I a common laugher, or did use
To stale with ordinary oaths my love
To every new protester, if you know
That I do fawn on men and hug them hard
And after scandal them, or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

A very pleasing night to honest men.

Men prize the thing ungained more than it is.

I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee like a sow that hath overwhelm'd all her litter but one.