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..

"For nothing can seem foul to those that win."

Shakespeare, William on cheating    Share


"Then is it sin to rush into the secret house of death. Ere death dare come to us?"

Shakespeare, William on suicide
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"A whoreson jackanapes must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed mine oaths of him and might not spend them at my pleasure. When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths, ha?"

Shakespeare, William on swearing    Share

"It comes to pass oft that a terrible oath, with a swaggering accent sharply twanged off, gives manhood more approbation than ever proof itself would have earned him."

Shakespeare, William on swearing    Share

"Give thy thoughts no tongue, nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar."

Shakespeare, William on tact and tactfulness    Share

"A good old man, sir. He will be talking. As they say, when the age is in, the wit is out."

Shakespeare, William on talkativeness    Share

"Most dangerous Is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue"

Shakespeare, William on temptation    Share

"O mischief, thou art swift to enter in the thoughts of desperate men!"

Shakespeare, William on temptation    Share

"Make not your thoughts you prisons."

Shakespeare, William on thoughts and thinking
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"There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

Shakespeare, William on thoughts and thinking
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"Thought is free."

Shakespeare, William on thoughts and thinking
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"And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges."

Shakespeare, William on time    Share

"O, call back yesterday, bid time return."

Shakespeare, William on time    Share

"Journeys end in lovers meeting."

Shakespeare, William on travel
10 fans of this quote    Share

"Don't trust the person who has broken faith once."

Shakespeare, William on trust
9 fans of this quote    Share

"Love all, but trust a few."

Shakespeare, William on trust
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"While you live tell the truth and shame the devil."

Shakespeare, William on truth    Share

"You take my life when you do take the means whereby I live."

Shakespeare, William on unemployment    Share

"When valor preys on reason, it eats the sword it fights with."

Shakespeare, William on valor    Share

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

Shakespeare, William on vanity    Share

"Assume a virtue if you have it not."

Shakespeare, William on virtue    Share

"Men's evil manners live in brass, their virtues we write in water."

Shakespeare, William on virtue    Share

"Nimble thought can jump both sea and land."

Shakespeare, William on visualization    Share

"It is the purpose that makes strong the vow; But vows to every purpose must not hold."

Shakespeare, William on vow    Share

"Men's vows are women's traitors!"

Shakespeare, William on vow    Share

"'Tis not the many oaths that make the truth; But the plain single vow, that is vow'd true."

Shakespeare, William on vow    Share

"We go to gain a little patch of ground that hath in it no profit but the name."

Shakespeare, William on war    Share

"Cry havoc! and let slip the dogs of war, that this foul deed shall smell above the earth with carrion men, groaning for burial."

Shakespeare, William on war
4 fans of this quote    Share

"We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day."

Shakespeare, William on waste    Share

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

Shakespeare, William on welfare    Share

"The will is deaf and hears no heedful friends."

Shakespeare, William on power    Share

"Our bodies are our gardens... our wills are our gardeners."

Shakespeare, William on power
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"Nothing can seem foul to those who win."

Shakespeare, William on winners and winning    Share

"To be wise and love exceeds man's might."

Shakespeare, William on wisdom    Share

"So wise so young, they say, do never live long."

Shakespeare, William on wisdom    Share

"He's winding up the watch of his wit. By and by it will strike."

Shakespeare, William on wit
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"To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer."

Shakespeare, William on wives    Share

"It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds."

Shakespeare, William on words    Share

"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."

Shakespeare, William on world
5 fans of this quote    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 >>