Shakespeare's Dramatic Quotes

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Greatest English dramatist & poet

A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
As much or more we should ourselves complain.

Action is eloquence.

And since you know you cannot see yourself,
so well as by reflection, I, your glass,
will modestly discover to yourself,
that of yourself which you yet know not of.

And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

Assume a virtue, if you have it not.

Be great in act, as you have been in thought.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind
Thou art not so unkind,
As man's ingratitude.

Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood.

For they are yet ear-kissing arguments.

Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger
constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood,
garnish'd and deck'd in modest compliment,
not working with the eye without the ear,
and but in purged judgement trusting neither?
Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem.

Glory is like a circle in the water,
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,
Till by broad spreading it disperses to naught.

God bless thee; and put meekness in thy mind, love, charity, obedience, and true duty!

He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself.

His life was gentle; and the elements
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!

How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees.

- More quotations on: [Patience]
How use doth breed a habit in a man.

I am not bound to please thee with my answers.

I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart: but the saying is true 'The empty vessel makes the greatest sound'.

I dote on his very absence.

I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience.

I hate ingratitude more in a man
than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,
or any taint of vice whose strong corruption
inhabits our frail blood.

I must be cruel only to be kind;
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.

I pray thee cease thy counsel,
Which falls into mine ears as profitless
as water in a sieve.

I pray you bear me henceforth from the noise and rumour of the field, where I may think the remnant of my thoughts in peace, and part of this body and my soul with contemplation and devout desires.

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.

I wish you well and so I take my leave,
I Pray you know me when we meet again.

Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.


In a false quarrel there is no true valour.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility.

In time we hate that which we often fear.

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

A friend i'the court is better than a penny in purse.

A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.

A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued, and neither party loser.

Absence from those we love is self from self - a deadly banishment.

Alas, I am a woman friendless, hopeless!

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, his acts being seven ages.

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

An overflow of good converts to bad.

And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.

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 with words.

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Beauty is all very well at first sight; but whoever looks at it when it has been in the house three days?

Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery.

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 men are men; the best sometimes forget.

But O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes.

By that sin fell the angels.

Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.

Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

Death is a fearful thing.

Desire of having is the sin of covetousness.

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.

Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne'er loved them.

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

Farewell, fair cruelty.

Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones.

For I can raise no money by vile means.

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.

Give thy thoughts no tongue.

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.

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves 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 that is giddy thinks the world turns round.

He that loves to be flattered is worthy o' the flatterer.

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.

Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good dead in a naughty world.

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 by degrees?

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!

How well he's read, to reason against reading!

I am not bound to please thee with my answer.

I bear a charmed life.

I dote on his very absence.

I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad and to travel for it too!

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part, And mine is a sad one.

I like not fair terms and a villain's mind.

I may neither choose who I would, nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father.

I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire.

I say there is no darkness but ignorance.

I see that the fashion wears out more apparel than the man.

I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart.

I was adored once too.

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.

I were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.

I will praise any man that will praise me.

If it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul.

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

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 been churches, and poor men's cottage princes' palaces.

If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honor.

If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me.

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 you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?

Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

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?

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

It is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.

It is the stars, The stars above us, govern our conditions.

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 course.

Let no such man be trusted.

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.

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.

Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end.

Listen to many, speak to a few.

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 is not love that alters when it alteration finds.

Love is too young to know what conscience is.

Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.

Love to faults is always blind, always is to joy inclined. Lawless, winged, and unconfined, and breaks all chains from every mind.

Maids want nothing but husbands, and when they have them, they want everything.

Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.

Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.

Men shut their doors against a setting sun.

Men's vows are women's traitors!

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 loving virtue.

My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy.

My pride fell with my fortunes.

Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

No legacy is so rich as honesty.

No, I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing.

Nothing can come of nothing.

Now is the winter of our discontent.

Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.

O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!

O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil.

O, had I but followed the arts!

O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.

O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad!

O' What may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.

Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.

Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.

Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.

Praise us as we are tasted, allow us as we prove.

Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.


Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.

Speak low, if you speak love.

Such as we are made of, such we be.

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.

Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.

Talking isn't doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.

Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.

Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart.

The attempt and not the deed confounds us.

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 their bones.

The fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.

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.

The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.

The most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is and steal out of your company.

The object of art is to give life a shape.

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 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 wheel is come full circle.

There have been many great men that have flattered the people who ne'er loved them.

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.

There is no darkness but ignorance.

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

There was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass.

There's many a man has more hair than wit.

There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.

There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting.

There's place and means for every man alive.

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.

Time and the hour run through the roughest day.

'Tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems.

'Tis better to bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.

'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after.

'Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.

To be, or not to be: that is the question.

To do a great right do a little wrong.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who hath any honesty in him.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping?

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.

Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.

We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone.

We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things require a seed to start from... Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing, but all things return dissolved into their elements.

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

Well, if Fortune be a woman, she's a good wench for this gear.

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god.

What is past is prologue.

What, man, defy the devil. Consider, he's an enemy to mankind.

What's done can't be undone.

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.

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.

When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.

Where every something, being blent together turns to a wild of nothing.

Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?

Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.

Women may fall when there's no strength in men.

Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart.

It is not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after.

Lady you bereft me of all words,
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins,
And there is such confusion in my powers.

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.

Mine honour is my life; both grow in one; take honour from me and my life is done.

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.

Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners.

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie.

Pity is the virtue of the law, and none but tyrants use it cruelly.

Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear.

See first that the design is wise and just: that ascertained, pursue it resolutely; do not for one repulse forego the purpose that you resolved to effect.

So may he rest, his faults lie gently on him!

Strong reasons make strong actions.

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.

Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like a toad, though ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in its head.

The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords, in such a just and charitable war.

The sands are number'd that make up my life.

The soul of this man is in his clothes.

The trust I have is in mine innocence,
and therefore am I bold and resolute.

Their understanding
Begins to swell and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shores
That now lie foul and muddy.

Thou art all the comfort,
The Gods will diet me with.

Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge of thine own cause.

Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.

Thy words, I grant are bigger, for I wear not, my dagger in my mouth.

Virtue and genuine graces in themselves speak what no words can utter.

We are advertis'd by our loving friends.

We do not keep the outward form of order, where there is deep disorder in the mind.

We know what we are, but not what we may be.

When griping grief the heart doth wound,
and doleful dumps the mind opresses,
then music, with her silver sound,
with speedy help doth lend redress.