William Shakespeare Quotes on Love (547 Quotes)

O, 'tis the curse in love, and still approv'd,
When women cannot love where they're belov'd!

If music be the food of love, then play on.

And therefore take the present time,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
For love is crowned with the prime,
In the spring time, &c.

Being held a foe, he may not have access
To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear,
And she as much in love, her means much less
To meet her new beloved anywhere;
But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,
Temp'ring extremities with extreme sweet.

Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate thee;
Corruption wins not more than honesty.

Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom passing fair
Playing in the wanton air:
Through the velvet leaves the wind
All unseen 'gan passage find;
That the lover, sick to death,
Wish'd himself the heaven's breath.

My conceal'd lady to our cancell'd love?

She told her, while she kept it,
'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father
Entirely to her love, but if she lost it
Or made a gift of it, my father's eye
Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt
After new fancies.

I must weep,
But they are cruel tears; this sorrow's heavenly,
It strikes where it doth love.

O, take his mother's thanks, a widow's thanks,
Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength
To make a more requital to your love!

By my troth, and in good earnest, and so God mend me, and
by all pretty oaths that are not dangerous, if you break one jot
of your promise, or come one minute behind your hour, I will
think you the most pathetical break-promise, and the most hollow
lover, and the most unworthy of her you call Rosalind, that may
be chosen out of the gross band of the unfaithful.

Here is her hand, the agent of her heart;
Here is her oath for love, her honour's pawn.

Farewell; the leisure and the fearful time
Cuts off the ceremonious vows of love
And ample interchange of sweet discourse
Which so-long-sund'red friends should dwell upon.

I have a wife who I protest I love;
I would she were in heaven, so she could
Entreat some power to change this currish Jew.

Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit,
Which, like a usurer, abound'st in all,
And usest none in that true use indeed
Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit.

She was belov'd, she lov'd; she is, and doth;
But still sweet love is food for fortune's tooth.

Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
By their own beauties; or, if love be blind,
It best agrees with night.

Love comforteth like sunshine after rain, But lust's effect is tempest after sun Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain, Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done Love surfeit's not, Lust like a glutton dies, Love is all truth, Lust full

No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call;
All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more.

The feast is ready which the careful Titus
Hath ordain'd to an honourable end,
For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome.

Now I come to't, my lord:
She that accuses him of fornication,
In self-same manner doth accuse my husband;
And charges him, my lord, with such a time
When I'll depose I had him in mine arms,
With all th' effect of love.

Such is my love, to thee I so belong,
That for thy right, myself will bear all wrong.

Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate
A contract of true love; be not too late.

Go get thee to thy love, as was decreed,
Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her.

So holy and so perfect is my love,
And I in such a poverty of grace,
That I shall think it a most plenteous crop
To glean the broken ears after the man
That the main harvest reaps; loose now and then
A scatt'red smile, and that I'll live upon.

He that will divide a
minute into a thousand parts, and break but a part of the
thousand part of a minute in the affairs of love, it may be said
of him that Cupid hath clapp'd him o' th' shoulder, but I'll
warrant him heart-whole.

Do all men kill the things they do not love?

I pray, sir, tell me, is it possible
That love should of a sudden take such hold?

Whether it be through force of your report,
My noble Lord of Suffolk, or for that
My tender youth was never yet attaint
With any passion of inflaming love,
I cannot tell; but this I am assur'd,
I feel such sharp dissension in my breast,
Such fierce alarums both of hope and fear,
As I am sick with working of my thoughts.

I grant, sweet love, thy lovely argument
Deserves the travail of a worthier pen,
Yet what of thee thy poet doth invent
He robs thee of, and pays it thee again.

'Tis pity love should be so contrary;
And thinking on it makes me cry 'Alas!

Disgrace not so your king,
That he should be so abject, base, and poor,
To choose for wealth and not for perfect love.

And so suppose am I; for in his grave
Assure thyself my love is buried.

Love is too young to know what conscience is;
Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?

Do not call it sin in me
That I am forsworn for thee;
Thou for whom e'en Jove would swear
Juno but an Ethiop were;
And deny himself for Jove,
Turning mortal for thy love.

He cannot want the best
That shall attend his love.

Lie quietly, and hear a little more;
Nay, do not struggle, for thou shalt not rise:
To make thee hate the hunting of the boar,
Unlike myself thou hear'st me moralize,
Applying this to that, and so to so;
For love can comment upon every woe.

I thank thee, gentle Percy; and be sure
I count myself in nothing else so happy
As in a soul rememb'ring my good friends;
And as my fortune ripens with thy love,
It shall be still thy true love's recompense.

We men may say more, swear more, but indeed
Our shows are more than will; for still we prove
Much in our vows, but little in our love.

She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow
Do I live dead that live to tell it now.

Presently the Duke
Said 'twas the fear indeed and that he doubted
'Twould prove the verity of certain words
Spoke by a holy monk 'that oft' says he
'Hath sent to me, wishing me to permit
John de la Car, my chaplain, a choice hour
To hear from him a matter of some moment;
Whom after under the confession's seal
He solemnly had sworn that what he spoke
My chaplain to no creature living but
To me should utter, with demure confidence
This pausingly ensu'd: "Neither the King nor's heirs,
Tell you the Duke, shall prosper; bid him strive
To gain the love o' th' commonalty; the Duke
Shall govern England.

Under what title shall I woo for thee
That God, the law, my honour, and her love
Can make seem pleasing to her tender years?

From Scotland am I stol'n, even of pure love,
To greet mine own land with my wishful sight.

If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die.

Yet, by your gracious patience,
I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver
Of my whole course of love: what drugs, what charms,
What conjuration, and what mighty magic-
For such proceeding I am charged withal-
I won his daughter.

Now, by the honour of my ancestry,
I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine,
And think thee worthy of an empress' love.

Love is too young to know what conscience is.

If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your
servant.

God give us leisure for these rites of love!

Pardon me, Caesar, for my dear dear love
To your proceeding bids me tell you this,
And reason to my love is liable.