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..

"We wound our modesty and make foul the clearness of our deservings, when of ourselves we publish them."

Shakespeare, William on modesty
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"A miser grows rich by seeming poor. An extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich."

Shakespeare, William on money
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"Dost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale?"

Shakespeare, William on moralists    Share

"Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?"

Shakespeare, William on murder
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"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 motions of his spirit are dull as night, and his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted."

Shakespeare, William on music
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"Is it not strange that sheep's guts should hale souls out of men's bodies?"

Shakespeare, William on music    Share

"If music be the food of love; play on."

Shakespeare, William on music
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"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Shakespeare, William on names
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"Nature must obey necessity. [Julius Caesar]"

Shakespeare, William on necessity
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"We were not born to sue, but to command."

Shakespeare, William on negotiation    Share

"O comfort-killing night, image of hell, dim register and notary of shame, black stage for tragedies and murders fell, vast sin-concealing chaos, nurse of blame!"

Shakespeare, William on night    Share

"Remembrance of things past."

Shakespeare, William on nostalgia    Share

"Every good servant does not all commands."

Shakespeare, William on obedience    Share

"Thou seest I have more flesh than another man, and therefore more frailty."

Shakespeare, William on obesity    Share

"Let me have men about me that are fat, sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights. Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous."

Shakespeare, William on obesity    Share

"How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes deeds ill done!"

Shakespeare, William on opportunity    Share

"One pain is lessened by another's anguish."

Shakespeare, William on pain
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"Pain pays the income of each precious thing."

Shakespeare, William on pain
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"Things without remedy, should be without regard; what is done, is done."

Shakespeare, William on past
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"We have seen better days."

Shakespeare, William on past    Share

"What is past is prologue."

Shakespeare, William on past    Share

"Who can be patient in extremes? [Henry Vi]"

Shakespeare, William on patience
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"Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod."

Shakespeare, William on patience    Share

"That which in mean men we entitle patience is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts."

Shakespeare, William on patience
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"How poor are they that have not patience. What wound did ever heal but by degrees?"

Shakespeare, William on patience
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"A peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience."

Shakespeare, William on peace    Share

"Striving to better, oft we mar what's well."

Shakespeare, William on perfection
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"I am a kind of burr; I shall stick."

Shakespeare, William on perseverance
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"For there was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently."

Shakespeare, William on philosophers and philosophy    Share

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies."

Shakespeare, William on philosophers and philosophy
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"Soft pity enters an iron gate."

Shakespeare, William on pity    Share

"If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work."

Shakespeare, William on plays    Share

"You are thought here to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch, therefore bear you the lantern."

Shakespeare, William on police    Share

"The object of art is to give life a shape. [Midsummer Nights Dream]"

Shakespeare, William on art
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"O, had I but followed the arts!"

Shakespeare, William on art    Share

"These earthly godfathers of Heaven's lights, that give a name to every fixed star, have no more profit of their shining nights than those that walk and know not what they are."

Shakespeare, William on astronomy
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"The teeming Autumn big with rich increase, bearing the wanton burden of the prime like widowed wombs after their lords decease."

Shakespeare, William on autumn    Share

"He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man."

Shakespeare, William on beards
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"Get thee glass eyes, and like a scurvy politician, seem to see the things thou dost not."

Shakespeare, William on politics
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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 >>