119 William Shakespeare Quotes and Best Lines

William Shakespeare, Shakespeare also spelled Shakspere, was an English playwright, poet, writer and actor. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon” or “Swan of Avon”. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist. Here are best William Shakespeare quotes will refresh your memory with some of Shakespeare’s best lines, and surprise you with others that you didn’t even realize were written by him!

Shakespeare occupies a position unique in world literature with Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth and  all of his stunning sonnets and other works. Shakespeare’s top spot in the literary world has been solidified for centuries.

Shakespeare Quotes

1. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” ~ William Shakespeare

2. “Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.” ~ William Shakespeare

3. “All that glisters is not gold.” ~ William Shakespeare

4. “What is past is prologue.” ~ William Shakespeare

5. “If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone.” ~ William Shakespeare

6. “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” ~ William Shakespeare
7. “How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?” ~ William Shakespeare
8. “Nothing can come of nothing.” ~ William Shakespeare
9. “How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” ~ William Shakespeare
10. “What’s done can’t be undone.” ~ William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare Quotes

11. “Though she be but little, she is fierce.” ~ William Shakespeare
12. “No legacy is so rich as honesty.” ~ William Shakespeare
13. “This above all; to thine own self be true.” ~ William Shakespeare
14. “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” ~ William Shakespeare
15. “The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.” ~ William Shakespeare
16. “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” ~ William Shakespeare
17. “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” ~ William Shakespeare
18. “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” ~ William Shakespeare
19. “Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.” ~ William Shakespeare
20. “Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.” ~ William Shakespeare

Famous Shakespeare Quotes

21. “‘Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after.” ~ William Shakespeare
22. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” ~ William Shakespeare
23. “Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.” ~ William Shakespeare
24. “Expectation is the root of all heartache.” ~ William Shakespeare
25. “Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.” ~ William Shakespeare
26. “Talking isn’t doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.” ~ William Shakespeare
27. “In time we hate that which we often fear.” ~ William Shakespeare
28. “Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.” ~ William Shakespeare
29. “With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” ~ William Shakespeare
30. “Boldness be my friend.” ~ William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Quotes

31. “Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” ~ William Shakespeare
32. “Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.” ~ William Shakespeare
33. “Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.” ~ William Shakespeare
34. “When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.” ~ William Shakespeare
35. “Such as we are made of, such we be.” ~ William Shakespeare
36. “And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.” ~ William Shakespeare
37. “Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.” ~ William Shakespeare
38. “To be, or not to be: that is the question.” ~ William Shakespeare
39. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts.” ~ William Shakespeare
40. “Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” ~ William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Love Quotes

41. “Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting.” ~ William Shakespeare
42. “Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love.” ~ William Shakespeare
43. “I am one who loved not wisely but too well.” ~ William Shakespeare
44. “A young woman in love always looks like patience on a monument smiling at grief.” ~ William Shakespeare
45. “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.” ~ William Shakespeare
46. “They do not love that do not show their love.” ~ William Shakespeare
47. “I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.” ~ William Shakespeare
48. “Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake.” ~ William Shakespeare
49. “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.” ~ William Shakespeare
50. “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” ~ William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Quotes about Life

51. “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” ~ William Shakespeare
52. “And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” ~ William Shakespeare
53. “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this and this gives life to thee.” ~ William Shakespeare
54. “Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.” ~ William Shakespeare
55. “I bear a charmed life.” ~ William Shakespeare
56. “Words are easy, like the wind; faithful friends are hard to find.” ~ William Shakespeare
57. “The fault…is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” ~ William Shakespeare
58. “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.” ~ William Shakespeare
59. “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it.” ~ William Shakespeare
60. “All things are ready, if our mind be so.” ~ William Shakespeare

Best Shakespeare Quotes

61. “I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.” ~ William Shakespeare
62. “My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break.” ~ William Shakespeare
63. “Brevity is the soul of wit.” ~ William Shakespeare
64. “Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up o-er wrought heart and bids it break.” ~ William Shakespeare
65. “One may smile, and smile, be a villain.” ~ William Shakespeare
66. “Conscience doth make cowards of us all.” ~ William Shakespeare
67. “Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.” ~ William Shakespeare
68. “Et tu, Brute?” ~ William Shakespeare
69. “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-ey’d monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” ~ William Shakespeare
70. “Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.” ~ William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Inspirational Quotes

71. “Be great in act, as you have been in thought.” ~ William Shakespeare
72. “Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.” ~ William Shakespeare
73. “Many a true word hath been spoken in jest.” ~ William Shakespeare
74. “For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; lillies that fester smell far worse than weeds.” ~ William Shakespeare
75. “The Devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape.” ~ William Shakespeare
76. “Thought is free.” ~ William Shakespeare
77. “April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” ~ William Shakespeare
78. “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” ~ William Shakespeare
79. “Our bodies are our gardens to the which our wills are gardeners.” ~ William Shakespeare
80. “The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?” ~ William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Quotes

81. “Men should be what they seem.” ~ William Shakespeare
82. “He jests at scars that never felt a wound.” ~ William Shakespeare
83. “I would not wish any companion in the world but you.” ~ William Shakespeare
84. “Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.” ~ William Shakespeare
85. “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” ~ William Shakespeare
86. “Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly. Then your love would also change.” ~ William Shakespeare
87. “If music be the food of love, play on.” ~ William Shakespeare
88. “Love is too young to know what conscience is.” ~ William Shakespeare
89. “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” ~ William Shakespeare
90. “Don’t waste your love on somebody, who doesn’t value it.” ~ William Shakespeare

Shakespearean Sayings

91. “And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.” ~ William Shakespeare
92. “Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.” ~ William Shakespeare
93. “Go to your bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.” ~ William Shakespeare
94. “In black ink my love may still shine bright.” ~ William Shakespeare
95. “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom.” ~ William Shakespeare
96. “See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. O, that I were a glove upon that hand that I might touch that cheek!” ~ William Shakespeare
97. “The course of true love never did run smooth.” ~ William Shakespeare
98. “Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.” ~ William Shakespeare
99. “For which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?” ~ William Shakespeare
100. “Speak low, if you speak love.” ~ William Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s Quotations

101. “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” ~ William Shakespeare
102. “I will praise any man that will praise me.” ~ William Shakespeare
103. “My pride fell with my fortunes.” ~ William Shakespeare
104. “Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.” ~ William Shakespeare
105. “Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?” ~ William Shakespeare
106. “I dote on his very absence.” ~ William Shakespeare
107. “There’s many a man has more hair than wit.” ~ William Shakespeare
108. “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” ~ William Shakespeare
109. “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.” ~ William Shakespeare
110. “I am not bound to please thee with my answer.” ~ William Shakespeare

Funny Shakespeare Quotes

111. “How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath to say to me that thou art out of breath?” ~ William Shakespeare
112. “I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue.” ~ William Shakespeare
113. “Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak.” ~ William Shakespeare
114. “I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.” ~ William Shakespeare
115. “‘I can see that he’s not in your good books,’ said the messenger. ‘No, and if he were I would burn my library.'” ~ William Shakespeare
116. “God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.” ~ William Shakespeare
117. “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” ~ William Shakespeare
118. “He that loves to be flattered is worthy o’ the flatterer.” ~ William Shakespeare
119. “Maids want nothing but husbands, and when they have them, they want everything.” ~ William Shakespeare

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