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..

"A politician is one that would circumvent God."

Shakespeare, William on politics
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"There have been many great men that have flattered the people who never loved them."

Shakespeare, William on politics    Share

"I durst not laugh for fear of opening my lips and receiving the bad air."

Shakespeare, William on pollution    Share

"My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep. The more I give thee, the more I have, For both are infinite"

Shakespeare, William on possibilities
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"For he was likely, had he been put on, to have proved most royally."

Shakespeare, William on potential    Share

"Lord we may know what we are, but know not what we may be."

Shakespeare, William on potential
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"O world, how apt the poor are to be proud!"

Shakespeare, William on poverty and the poor    Share

"Madness in great ones must not unwatched go."

Shakespeare, William on power    Share

"There's not one wise man among twenty will praise himself."

Shakespeare, William on praise    Share

"Bow, stubborn knees!"

Shakespeare, William on prayer    Share

"But, good my brother, do not, as some ungracious pastors do. Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven whilst like a puffed and reckless libertine himself the primrose path of dalliance treads and recks not his own rede."

Shakespeare, William on preachers and preaching    Share

"Man, proud man, drest in a little brief authority, most ignorant of what he's most assur d, glassy essence, like an angry ape, plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, as make the angels weep."

Shakespeare, William on pride    Share

"Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends."

Shakespeare, William on procrastination
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"In delay there lies no plenty."

Shakespeare, William on procrastination
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"He plough'd her, and she cropp'd."

Shakespeare, William on creation    Share

"Beware of the ides of March."

Shakespeare, William on prophecy    Share

"The proverb is something musty."

Shakespeare, William on proverbs    Share

"Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, raze out the written troubles of the brain, and with some sweet oblivious antidote cleanse the fraught bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart?"

Shakespeare, William on psychiatry    Share

"I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people."

Shakespeare, William on publicity    Share

"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late."

Shakespeare, William on punctuality
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"And where the offence is, let the great axe fall."

Shakespeare, William on punishment    Share

"Every why has a wherefore."

Shakespeare, William on purpose
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This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"What we determine we often break. Purpose is but the slave to memory."

Shakespeare, William on purpose    Share

"The course of true love never did run smooth."

Shakespeare, William on quarrels
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"To be or not to be that is the question. Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the stings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or take up arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing them, end them. [Hamlet]"

Shakespeare, William on questions
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"What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and god-like reason To fust in us unused."

Shakespeare, William on reason    Share

"Strong reasons make strong actions."

Shakespeare, William on reason    Share

"Let's not burden our remembrance with a heaviness that's gone."

Shakespeare, William on regret
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"Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I ha lost my reputation, I ha lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial!"

Shakespeare, William on reputation    Share

"For I am full of spirit and resolve to meet all perils very constantly."

Shakespeare, William on resolution    Share

"Who is so firm that can't be seduced?"

Shakespeare, William on resolution    Share

"Nothing will come of nothing."

Shakespeare, William on results    Share

"Fear no more the heat o the sun, nor the furious winter's rages. Thou thy worldly task hast done, home art gone and taken thy wages."

Shakespeare, William on retirement    Share

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

Shakespeare, William on retirement    Share

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

Shakespeare, William on revenge    Share

"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?"

Shakespeare, William on revenge
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"O, what a world of vile ill-favored faults, looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year!"

Shakespeare, William on riches    Share

"The path is smooth that leadeth on to danger."

Shakespeare, William on risk
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This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"Virtue is bold and goodness never fearful."

Shakespeare, William on risk    Share

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

Shakespeare, William on royalty    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 >>