William Shakespeare Quotes (3360 Quotes)

And to be sure that is not false I swear,
A thousand groans but thinking on thy face,
One on another's neck do witness bear
Thy black is fairest in my judgment's place.

The nature of bad news infects the teller.

Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt,Since riches point to misery and contempt

Faith, we met, and found the quarrel was upon the
seventh cause.

Constant you are, But yet a woman and for secrecy, No lady closer for I well believe Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know.

The why is plain as way to parish church:
He that a fool doth very wisely hit
Doth very foolishly, although he smart,
Not to seem senseless of the bob; if not,
The wise man's folly is anatomiz'd
Even by the squand'ring glances of the fool.

O, for the love of laughter, let him fetch his drum; he
says he has a stratagem for't.

O curse of marriage That we can call these delicate creatures ours, And not their appetites. I had rather be a toad, And live upon the vapour of a dungeon, Than keep a corner in the thing I love For others uses.

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

So, either by thy picture or my love,
Thyself, away, art present still with me;
For thou not farther than my thoughts canst move,
And I am still with them, and they with thee;
Or, if they sleep, thy picture in my sight
Awakes my heart to heart's and eye's delight.

Ay me for aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth. But, either it was different in blood, Or else it stood upon the choice of friends, Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, Making it momentany as a sound, Swift as a shadow, short as any dream Brief as the lightning in the collied night, That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold' The jaws of darkness do devour it up So quick bright things come to confusion.

No more than a fish loves water.

But that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from who bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than to fly to others that we know not of

When workmen strive to do better than well, They do confound their skill in covetousness And oftentimes excusing of a fault Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse, As patches set upon a little breach Discredit more in hiding of the fault Than did the fault before it was so patch'd.

O, she misused me past the endurance of a block.

We must obey the time.

I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking so full of valor that they smote the air, for breathing in their faces, beat the ground for kissing of their feet.

It warms the very sickness in my heart, That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, 'Thus diddest thou'

Why, then the worlds mine oyster, Which I with sword will open.

Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides, Who covert faults at last with shame derides

Frame your mind to mirth and merriment; Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life.

All that glisters is not gold.Often you have heard that toldMany a man his life hath soldBut my outside to beholdGilded tombs do worms enfold.

Silvius, the time was that I hated thee;
And yet it is not that I bear thee love;
But since that thou canst talk of love so well,
Thy company, which erst was irksome to me,
I will endure; and I'll employ thee too.

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.

So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt

Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep.

The primrose way to the everlasting bonfire.

He that wants money, means, and content is without three good friends.

There shall your master have a thousand loves,
A mother, and a mistress, and a friend,
A phoenix, captain, and an enemy,
A guide, a goddess, and a sovereign,
A counsellor, a traitress, and a dear;
His humble ambition, proud humility,
His jarring concord, and his discord dulcet,
His faith, his sweet disaster; with a world
Of pretty, fond, adoptious christendoms
That blinking Cupid gossips.

Peace, peace; this piece
of toasted cheese will do't.

Beseeching him to give her virtuous breeding-
She is young, and of a noble modest nature;
I hope she will deserve well-and a little
To love her for her mother's sake, that lov'd him,
Heaven knows how dearly.

But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we'll not fail.

O, how this spring of love resembleth The uncertain glory of an April day, Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,And by an by a cloud takes all away

A hit, a very palpable hit.

He was not born to shame Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit.

Variable passions throng her constant woe,
As striving who should best become her grief;
All entertain'd, each passion labours so,
That every present sorrow seemeth chief,
But none is best: then join they all together,
Like many clouds consulting for foul weather.

I will omit no opportunity
That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.

How like a winter hath my absence been. From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen, What old December's bareness everywhere

So shall I live, supposing thou art true,
Like a deceivèd husband; so love's face
May still seem love to me, though altered new,
Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place.

Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won;
Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assailed;
And when a woman woos, what woman's son
Will sourly leave her till he have prevailed?

If my dear love were but the child of state,
It might for Fortune's bastard be unfathered,
As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate,
Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gathered.

By heaven, he echoes me, As if there were some monster in his thought; Too hideous to be shown.

Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits.

Well, if Fortune be a woman, she's a good wench for this gear.

Wife, love Lord Hastings, let him kiss your hand;
And what you do, do it unfeignedly.

I lov'd your father, and we love ourself,
And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine

The weariest and most loathed worldly life, that age, ache, penury and imprisonment can lay on nature is a paradise, to what we fear of death.

You are deceiv'd; my child is none of his:
It was Alencon that enjoy'd my love.

Live, and love thy misery!

Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally, I would we could do so for her benefits are mightily misplaced and the bountiful blind girl doth most mistake in her gifts to women. 'Tis true for those that she makes fair she scarce makes honest and those that she makes honest she makes very ill-favouredly. Nay, now thou goest from Fortunes office to Natures. Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the lineaments of Nature.