William Shakespeare Quotes on Man (261 Quotes)

But men may construe things after their fashion, Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.

I do not know the man I should avoid So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much, He is a great observer, and he looks Quite through the deeds of men. He loves no plays As thou dost, Anthony; he heard no music; Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort As if he mocked himself and scorned his spirit That could be moved to smile at anything. Such men as he be never at heart's ease Whiles they behold a greater than themselves, And therefore are they very dangerous.

Is it not strange that sheep's guts could hail souls out of men's bodies?

To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.

By my soul I swear, there is no power in the tongue of man to alter me.

Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.

By their rank thoughts, my deeds must not be shown,
Unless this general evil they maintain:
All men are bad, and in their badness reign.

I have lived fourscore years and upward; I never
heard a man of his place, gravity, and learning, so wide of
his own respect.

You or any man living may be drunk at some time, man.

Thou art the thing itself;
unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked
animal as thou art.

O, I have pass'd a miserable night,
So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,
That, as I am a Christian faithful man,
I would not spend another such a night
Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days-
So full of dismal terror was the time!

No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.

Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.

No worse a husband than the best of men.

A goodly portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent; of a cheerful
look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage; and, as I think,
his age some fifty, or, by'r Lady, inclining to threescore; and
now I remember me, his name is Falstaff.

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy... for the apparel oft proclaims the man.

A good old man, sir. He will be talking. As they say, when the age is in, the wit is out.

O what men dare do what men may do what men daily do, not knowing what they do.

Vexed I am
Of late with passions of some difference,
Conceptions only proper to myself,
Which give some soil perhaps to my behaviors;
But let not therefore my good friends be grieved-
Among which number, Cassius, be you one-
Nor construe any further my neglect
Than that poor Brutus with himself at war
Forgets the shows of love to other men.

Jack shall have Jill Nought shall go ill The man shall have his mare again, And all shall be well.

None in the world; nor do I know the man.

Even so; an't please your worship, Brakenbury,
You may partake of any thing we say:
We speak no treason, man; we say the King
Is wise and virtuous, and his noble queen
Well struck in years, fair, and not jealous;
We say that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,
A cherry lip, a bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue;
And that the Queen's kindred are made gentlefolks.

He's truly valiant that can wisely suffer The worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs His outsides, to wear them like his raiment, carelessly, And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart, To bring it into danger.

We cannot fight for love as men may do We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo

You are not wood, you are not stones, but men.

Men may sleep, and
they may have their throats about them at that time; and some say
knives have edges.

A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears see how yond justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark, in thine ear change places and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief.

A man may be too confident.

By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once; we owe God
a death.

The more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly.

But if you would consider the true cause
Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts,
Why birds and beasts from quality and kind,
Why old men, fools, and children calculate,
Why all these things change from their ordinance,
Their natures, and preformed faculties
To monstrous quality, why, you shall find
That heaven hath infused them with these spirits
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Unto some monstrous state.

O God methinks it were a happy life, To be no better than a homely swain To sit upon a hill, as I do now, To carve out dials, quaintly, point by point, Thereby to see the minutes how they run, How many make the hour full complete How many hours bring about the day How many days will finish up the year How many years a mortal man may live.

He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.

What can be happier than for a man, conscious of virtuous acts, and content with liberty, to despise all human affairs.

A man, as you are.

The will of man is by his reason swayed.

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

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.

Man, proud man, Drest in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd, His glassy essence, like an angry ape, Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, As make the angels weep.

Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mull'd, deaf, sleepy,
insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war's a
destroyer of men.

The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.

Being scarce made up,
I mean to man, he had not apprehension
Or roaring terrors; for defect of judgment
Is oft the cease of fear.

O good old man, how well in thee appears The constant service of the antique world, When service sweat for duty, not for meed Thou art not for the fashion of these times, Where none will sweat but for promotion, And having that do choke their service up Even with the having....

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man; As modest stillness and humility; But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide, Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit; To his full height.

Tush, man, mortal
men, mortal men.

O King, believe not this hard-hearted man!

She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd
That heaven had made her such a man; she thank'd me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her.

I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about t'expound this dream.

A rarer spirit never Did steer humanity but you gods will give us Some faults to make us men.