William Shakespeare Quotes (3360 Quotes)

Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief.

Alas, how love can trifle with itself!

Rest you fair, good signior;
Your worship was the last man in our mouths.

Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts:
If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say, "This poet lies,
Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces.

Then, good my mother, let me know my father-
Some proper man, I hope.

Consideration, like an angel, came; And whipped the offending Adam out of him.

Peace, peace, peace; stay, hold, peace!

Each present joy or sorrow seems the chief.

He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.

Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

Young men's love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.

Alas that love, so gentle in his view,
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!

So God help Warwick, as he loves the land
And common profit of his country!

I durst not laugh for fear of opening my lips and receiving the bad air.

All lovers swear more performance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform vowing more than the perfection of ten, and discharging less than the tenth part of one.

Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

Why does my blood thus muster to my heart,Making both it unable for itself,And dispossessing all my other partsOf necessary fitness

I pray you, then, in love and dear alliance,
Let that one article rank with the rest;
And thereupon give me your daughter.

Upon my life, by some device or other
The villain is o'erraught of all my money.

For if I should despair, I should grow mad,
And in my madness might speak ill of thee,
Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad,
Mad slanderers by mad ears believèd be.

Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is wing's Cupid painted blind.

Death, as the
Psalmist saith, is certain to all; all shall die.

She that was ever fair and never proud,Had tongue at will, and yet was never loud.

Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while,Till we can clear these ambiguities.

It is the purpose that makes strong the vow But vows to every purpose must not hold.

Be patient, lords, and give them leave to speak.

Send danger from the east unto the west, So honor cross it from the north to south.

Well, death's the end of all.

Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.

Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.

Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep, Than doth a rich embroiderd canopy To kings that fear their subjects treachery.

And writers say, as the most forward bud
Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,
Even so by love the young and tender wit
Is turn'd to folly, blasting in the bud,
Losing his verdure even in the prime,
And all the fair effects of future hopes.

We are such stuff As dreams are made of, And our little life Is rounded with a sleep.

I know not why
I love this youth, and I have heard you say
Love's reason's without reason.

Your fortune stood upon the caskets there,
And so did mine too, as the matter falls;
For wooing here until I sweat again,
And swearing till my very roof was dry
With oaths of love, at last- if promise last-
I got a promise of this fair one here
To have her love, provided that your fortune
Achiev'd her mistress.

Like to the time o' the year between the extremesOf hot and cold, he was not sad nor merry.

He hath the jewel of my life in hold,
His youngest daughter, beautiful Bianca;
And her withholds from me, and other more,
Suitors to her and rivals in my love;
Supposing it a thing impossible-
For those defects I have before rehears'd-
That ever Katherina will be woo'd.

Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning;
One pain is lessoned by another's anguish;
Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning;
One desperate grief cures with another's languish.

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony. Sit, Jessica look, how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins. Such harmony is in immortal souls But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

Write down that they hope they serve God; and write God first,
for God defend but God should go before such villains!

Forever, and forever, farewell, Cassius If we do meet again, why, we shall smile If not, why then this parting was well made

That's a brave fellow; but he's vengeance proud and
loves not the common people.

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

you saw her fair, none else being by,
Herself pois'd with herself in either eye;
But in that crystal scales let there be weigh'd
Your lady's love against some other maid
That I will show you shining at this feast,
And she shall scant show well that now seems best.

The path is smooth that leadeth on to danger.

I will tell you-he beat me grievously
in the shape of a woman; for in the shape of man, Master
Brook, I fear not Goliath with a weaver's beam; because
I know also life is a shuttle.

To say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days.

I'll kill myself for grief.

O, cry you mercy, sir.