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Dramatist Quotes
» Quotes by William Shakespeare »
'Tis mad idolatry To make the service greater than the god.
'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after.
'Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.
'Tis the soldier's life to have their balmy slumbers waked with strife...
A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a...
A jest's prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it, Never in the...
A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly ar...
Peace
Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it; the one brings fue...
Absence from those we love is self from self - a deadly banishment.
Alas, how love can trifle with itself!
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of m...
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: the...
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, ...
Nature
April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.
Art made tongue-tied by authority.
As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; They kill us for their sp...
As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him.
As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love w...
Love
At Christmas I no more desire a rose Than wish a snow in May's new-fan...
At first the infant, mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. And then ...
Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatnes...
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Beauty is all very well at first sight; but whoever looks at it when i...
Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.
Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.
Boldness be my friend.
Brevity is the soul of wit.
But when they seldom come, they wished for come.
But will they come when you do call for them?
By that sin fell the angels.
Care I for the limb, the thews, the stature, bulk, and big assemblance...
Ceremony was but devised at first to set a gloss on faint deeds, hollo...
Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that childre...
Concerning God, free will and destiny: Of all that earth has been or y...
Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.
Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of...
Cudgel thy brains no more about it.
Days of absence, sad and dreary, Clothed in sorrow's dark array, Days ...
Death where is thy sting? Love, where is thy glory?
Desire of having is the sin of covetousness.
Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cak...
Doubt that the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move, doubt tru...
Love
Everyone ought to bear patiently the results of his own conduct.
Exceeds man's might: that dwells with the gods above.
Expectation is the root of all heartache.
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
Fame lulls the fever of the soul, and makes Us feel that we have grasp...
Farewell, fair cruelty.
Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the li...
Nature
For my part, it was Greek to me.
Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have Immortal longings in me.
Go to you bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.
God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.
Having nothing, nothing can he lose.
He does it with better grace, but I do it more natural.
He is winding the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.
He lives in fame that died in virtue's cause.
He makes a swan-like end, fading in music.
He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.
He that loves to be flattered is worthy o' the flatterer.
He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat.
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.
Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt, And very sea-mark of my utm...
How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good dead in ...
How long a time lies in one little word?
How now, wit! Whither wander you?
How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!
How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but...
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!
I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly, I know a ha...
I am not bound to please thee with my answer.
I bear a charmed life.
I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing o...
I dote on his very absence.
I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart.
I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking; so full of valor tha...
I try to forget what happiness was, and when that don't work, I study ...
I was adored once too.
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
I will name you the degrees. The first, the Retort Courteous; the seco...
I will praise any man that will praise me.
If it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul.
If it were done whe 'tis done, there 'twere well it were done quickly.
If music be the food of love, play on.
If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had bee...
If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if ...
If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow ...
If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If ...
If you want to win anything - a race, your self, your life - you have ...
Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly ...
In a false quarrel there is no true valor.
In time we hate that which we often fear.
Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance...
Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.
It is a custom. More honored in the breach than the observance.
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder, and that craves wary...
It provokes the desire but it take away the performance.
It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.
Lawless are they that make their wills their law.
Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent.
Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest...
Let no such man be trusted.
Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more preci...
Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy...
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his ...
Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore, so do our minutes, h...
Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying!
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.
Love
Love is a spirit of all compact of fire.
Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.
Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.
Macduff: What three things does drink especially provoke? Porter: Marr...
Maids want nothing but husbands, and when they have them, they want ev...
Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.
Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May whe...
Men shut their doors against a setting sun.
Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes.
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.
Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in lovin...
My age is as a lusty winter, frosty but kindly.
My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy.
My library was dukedom large enough.
My pride fell with my fortunes.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be.
No legacy is so rich as honesty.
Not wine... men intoxicate themselves; Not vice... men entice themselv...
Nothing can come of nothing.
Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable.
Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, ...
O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all ...
O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away thei...
O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, ...
O world, world! thus is the poor agent despised. O traitors and bawds,...
O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of inven...
O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I woul...
O! What a noble mind is here o'erthrown.
O' What may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!
O, had I but followed the arts!
O, he sits high in all the people's hearts; And that which would appea...
Oh! it offends me to the soul to hear a robust periwig-pated fellow, t...
Oh! that you could turn your eyes towards the napes of your necks, and...
Oh, thou hast a damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a s...
One good deed dying tongueless slaughters a thousand waiting upon that...
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
Nature
Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by ...
Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player Tha...
Parting is such sweet sorrow.
Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.
Reflection is the business of man; a sense of his state is his first d...
Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!
Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo? Deny thy father, and refuse t...
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
So shines a good deed in a weary world.
So wise so young, they say, do never live long.
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on...
Such seems your beauty still.
Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.
Suspicion, Discontent, and Strife, Come in for Dowrie with a Wife.
Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomou...
Sweet are the uses of adversity.
Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.
Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will...
Talking isn't doing It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet wor...
Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart.
The attempt and not the deed confounds us.
The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.
The course of true love never did run smooth.
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.
The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred with th...
The fashion wears out more apparel than the man.
The golden age is before us, not behind us.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
The love of heaven makes one heavenly.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.
Imagination
The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord o...
The most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to let him...
The object of art is to give life a shape.
The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain f...
The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.
The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch, Which hurts and is desired.
The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes.
The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.
The valiant never taste of death but once.
The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
The weariest and most loathed worldly life, that age, ache, penury and...
The wheel is come full circle.
The whirligig of time brings in his revenges.
The will of man is by his reason swayed.
There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads...
There is no darkness but ignorance.
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.
There's no trust, no faith, no honesty in men; all perjured, all forsw...
These earthly godfathers of Heaven's lights, that give a name to every...
They do not love that do not show their love.
They say miracles are past.
Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear.
Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing.
This above all; to thine own self be true.
Thou seest I have more flesh than another man, and therefore more fral...
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty; for in my youth I never ...
Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.
Time and the hour run through the roughest day.
To be, or not to be: that is the question.
To fear the worst oft cures the worse.
To their right praise and true perfection!
To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, t...
Tones that sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them do...
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping?
We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things req...
We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
Weariness can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth finds the down pi...
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in fa...
What is past is prologue.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would sm...
When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his fa...
When delicate and feeling souls are separated, there is not a feature ...
When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions.
When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.
Where every something, being blent together turns to a wild of nothing...
Where is your ancient courage? You were used to say extremities was th...
Where painting is weakest, namely, in the expression of the highest mo...
Why so large a cost, having so short a lease, does thou upon your fadi...
Why this is very midsummer madness.
With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio.
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.
Women speak two languages - one of which is verbal.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart.
Your 'if' is the only peace-maker; much virtue in 'if'.
Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, have yet some smack o...
Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short; youth is nimble, age is...