Quotes by Shakespeare, William




Born ca. 1564 and died ca. 1616 during the Renaissance period (1450-1599). One of the greatest writers of all time, Shakespeare, the peerless poet of the Sonnets and the creator of such dramatic masterpieces as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and King Lear, is a playwright of paradigmatic originality. In his discussion of the Western literary canon, critic Harold Bloom declared: "Shakespeare and Dante are the center of the Canon because they excel all other Western writer in cognitive acuity, linguistic energy, and power of invention." However, one could go a step further and suggest that Shakespeare defines the Western canon because he transcends it. If Shakespeare, as Ben Jonson declared, "was not of an age, but for all time," the great dramatist, one could argue, spoke to the ultimate concerns of humankind, regardless of period or cultural tradition..

"I had rather have a fool make me merry, than experience make me sad."

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

Shakespeare, William on happiness    Share

"Oppose not rage while rage is in its force, but give it way a while and let it waste."

Shakespeare, William on hatred    Share

"Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast."

Shakespeare, William on hatred
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"What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted. [Henry Iv]"

Shakespeare, William on art    Share

"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."

Shakespeare, William on heroes and heroism    Share

"There is a history in all men's lives."

Shakespeare, William on history and historians
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"People usually are the happiest at home."

Shakespeare, William on home
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"Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance."

Shakespeare, William on honesty    Share

"Honesty is the best policy. If I lose mine honor, I lose myself."

Shakespeare, William on honesty
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"Why should honor outlive honestly? [Orthello]"

Shakespeare, William on honor    Share

"The miserable have no other medicine but only hope."

Shakespeare, William on hope
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"We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart."

Shakespeare, William on hospitality    Share

"My nature is subdued to what it works in, like the dyer's hand."

Shakespeare, William on nature    Share

"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god -- the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!"

Shakespeare, William on humankind
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"'Tis mad idolatry To make the service greater than the god."

Shakespeare, William on idols    Share

"There is no darkness, but ignorance."

Shakespeare, William on ignorance
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"But thy eternal summer shall not fade."

Shakespeare, William on immortality
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"Much Ado About Nothing,"

Shakespeare, William on importance    Share

"I stalk about her door like a strange soul upon the Stygian banks staying for wattage."

Shakespeare, William on infatuation    Share

"No legacy is so rich as honestly."

Shakespeare, William on inheritance    Share

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in it. [Hamlet]"

Shakespeare, William on insanity
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"O sleep, O gentle sleep, nature's soft nurse, how have I frightened thee, that thou no more wilt weigh my eye-lids down and steep my senses in forgetfulness?"

Shakespeare, William on insomnia
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"It is the mind that makes the body rich; and as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, so honor peereth in the meanest habit."

Shakespeare, William on intelligence and intellectuals    Share

"I had rather be a toad, and live upon the vapor of a dungeon than keep a corner in the thing I love for others uses."

Shakespeare, William on jealousy    Share

"He jests at scars that never felt a wound."

Shakespeare, William on jokes and jokers    Share

"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. Where be your jibes now, your gambols, your songs, your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar?"

Shakespeare, William on jokes and jokers    Share

"My salad days, when I was green in judgment."

Shakespeare, William on judgment and judges    Share

"Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice."

Shakespeare, William on judgment and judges
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"The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, may have in the sworn twelve a thief or two guiltier than him they try."

Shakespeare, William on juries    Share

"Time is the justice that examines all offenders. [As You Like It]"

Shakespeare, William on justice
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"He took the bride about the neck and kissed her lips with such a clamorous smack that at the parting all the church did echo."

Shakespeare, William on kisses and kissing
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"Own more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest."

Shakespeare, William on knowledge
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"It was Greek to me."

Shakespeare, William on language    Share

"Present mirth hath present laughter. What's to come is still unsure."

Shakespeare, William on laughter    Share

"The first thing we do, lets kill the lawyers. [Henry Iv]"

Shakespeare, William on law and lawyers
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"My library was dukedom large enough."

Shakespeare, William on libraries
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"As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport."

Shakespeare, William on death
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"Life It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury; signifying nothing."

Shakespeare, William on life
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"Simply the thing I am shall make me live."

Shakespeare, William on life    Share

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Shakespeare, William - 78px-First_Folio.jpeg - Engraved portrait of William Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout, from the First Folio of shakespeare's plays   Photos >>