William Shakespeare Quotes (3360 Quotes)

I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove.

I do smell all horse-piss at which my nose is in great indignation

O, no the apprehension of the goodGives but the greater feeling to the worse.

Notwithstanding, use your pleasure; if
your love do not persuade you to come, let not my letter.

The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy; his legs
are legs for necessity, not for flexure.

A whoreson jackanapes must take me up for swearing as if I borrowed mine oaths of him and might not spend them at my pleasure. When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths, ha

I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves
a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in't; said to
be something imperfect in favouring the first complaint, hasty
and tinder-like upon too trivial motion; one that converses more
with the buttock of the night than with the forehead of the
morning.

This would have seem'd a period
To such as love not sorrow; but another,
To amplify too much, would make much more,
And top extremity.

Forgive me, Valentine; if hearty sorrow
Be a sufficient ransom for offence,
I tender 't here; I do as truly suffer
As e'er I did commit.

Your brother- no, no brother; yet the son-
Yet not the son; I will not call him son
Of him I was about to call his father-
Hath heard your praises; and this night he means
To burn the lodging where you use to lie,
And you within it.

'Tis better hope he is;
For his designs crave haste, his haste good hope.

Now what my love is, proof hath made you know;
And as my love is siz'd, my fear is so.

You, Lord Archbishop,
Whose see is by a civil peace maintain'd,
Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch'd,
Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor'd,
Whose white investments figure innocence,
The dove, and very blessed spirit of peace-
Wherefore you do so ill translate yourself
Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace,
Into the harsh and boist'rous tongue of war;
Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood,
Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine
To a loud trumpet and a point of war?

When from the first to last, betwixt us two,
Tears our recountments had most kindly bath'd,
As how I came into that desert place-
In brief, he led me to the gentle Duke,
Who gave me fresh array and entertainment,
Committing me unto my brother's love;
Who led me instantly unto his cave,
There stripp'd himself, and here upon his arm
The lioness had torn some flesh away,
Which all this while had bled; and now he fainted,
And cried, in fainting, upon Rosalind.

The King would speak with Cornwall; the dear father
Would with his daughter speak, commands her service.

I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady;
But she is dead.

He is not lolling on a lewd love-bed,
But on his knees at meditation;
Not dallying with a brace of courtezans,
But meditating with two deep divines;
Not sleeping, to engross his idle body,
But praying, to enrich his watchful soul.

But that in all my life, when I was a youth.

Mine ear is enamoured by thy note So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape and thy fair virtues force perforce doth move me to say, to swear, I love thee

Every why has a wherefore.

Truth hath a quiet breast.

We have seen better days.

Strong reasons make strong actions let us go If you say ay, the king will not say no.

Unkindness may do much,
And his unkindness may defeat my life,
But never taint my love.

Image of pride, why should I hold my peace?

Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.

Some come to take their ease; And sleep an act or two.

Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious.

If you do love my brother, hate not me;
I am his brother, and I love him well.

Madam, if your heart be so obdurate,
Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love,
The picture that is hanging in your chamber;
To that I'll speak, to that I'll sigh and weep;
For, since the substance of your perfect self
Is else devoted, I am but a shadow;
And to your shadow will I make true love.

Soldier, why wear'st thou that glove in thy cap?

I fear neither sword nor fire.

God, the best maker of all marriages, Combine your hearts in one.

Cry ''havoc'' and let loose the dogs of war, that this foul deed shall smell above the earth with carrion men, groaning for burial.

O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible, As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on a steeple My master sues to her, and she hath taught her suitor, He being her pupil, to become her tutor. O excellent device was there ever heard a better, That my master, being scribe, to himself should write the letter.

Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night.

Mark it, Cesario; it is old and plain;
The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,
And the free maids that weave their thread with bones,
Do use to chant it; it is silly sooth,
And dallies with the innocence of love,
Like the old age.

The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life

None in the world; but return with an invention, and
clap upon you two or three probable lies.

Marcus Andronicus, so I do affy
In thy uprightness and integrity,
And so I love and honour thee and thine,
Thy noble brother Titus and his sons,
And her to whom my thoughts are humbled all,
Gracious Lavinia, Rome's rich ornament,
That I will here dismiss my loving friends,
And to my fortunes and the people's favour
Commit my cause in balance to be weigh'd.

Doubt that the stars are fire Doubt that the sun doth shine Doubt that truth be a liar But never doubt that I love.

A sad tale's best for winter.

The attempt and not the deed confounds us.

Memory, the warder of the brain.

That life is better life, past fearing death,
Than that which lives to fear.

MenCan counsel and speak comfort to that griefWhich they themselves not feel.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy rich, not gaudy For the apparel oft proclaims the man, And they in France of the best rank and station Are of a most select and generous chief in that.

Conception is a blessing, but not
as your daughter may conceive.

All that is within him does condemn itself for being there.

Dead, if you will; but not to be his wife,
That is another's lawful promis'd love.