William Shakespeare

All the worlds 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. At first the infant,Mewling and puking in the nurses arms. Then the whining school-boy, with his satchelAnd shining morning face, creeping like snailUnwillingly to school. And then the lover,Sighing like furnace, with a woeful balladMade to his mistress eyebrow. Then a soldier,Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,Seeking the bubble reputationEven in the cannons mouth. And then the justice,In fair round belly with good capon lind,With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,Full of wise saws and modern instances;And so he plays his part. The sixth age shiftsInto the lean and slipperd pantaloon [dotard],With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,His youthful hose, well savd, a world too wideFor his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,Turning again toward childish treble, pipesAnd whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,That ends this strange eventful history,Is second childishness and mere oblivion,Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.

— William Shakespeare

man, proud man,Dressd in a little brief authority,

— William Shakespeare

This was the noblest Roman of them all. All the conspirators, save only he,Did that they did in envy of Caesar;He only, in a general honest thoughtAnd common good to all, made one of them. His life was gentle, and the elementsSo mixd in him that Nature might stand upAnd say to all the world, This was a man!

— William Shakespeare

Things won are done, joys soul lies in the doing.

— William Shakespeare

Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come, In yours and my discharge.

— William Shakespeare

Glendower:I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Hotspur:Why, so can I, or so can any man;But will they come when you do call for them?

— William Shakespeare

Had I but servd my God with half the zealI servd my king, He would not in mine ageHave left me naked to mine enemies.

— William Shakespeare

When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain

— William Shakespeare

I have immortal longings in me

— William Shakespeare

I have drunk, and seen the spider

— William Shakespeare

For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

— William Shakespeare

O, but man, proud man! Drest in a little brief authority; Most ingorant of what he's most assur'd, His glassy essence,-like an angry ape, Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, As make the angels weep;

— William Shakespeare

The evil that men do, lives on; the good, often interred with their bones.

— William Shakespeare

My soul is in the sky.

— William Shakespeare

hope

— William Shakespeare

Of all the needs (there are none imaginary) a lonely child has, the one that must be satisfied, if there is going to be hope and a hope of wholeness, is the unshaken need for an unshakable God."

— William Shakespeare

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.

— William Shakespeare

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the heart. Therefore, is winged cupid painted blind.

— William Shakespeare

I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? 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? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction. (III.i.49�61) The Merchant of Venice

— William Shakespeare

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

— William Shakespeare

I must be cruel only to be kind

— William Shakespeare

Still have I borne it with a patient shrug, For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.

— William Shakespeare

Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

— William Shakespeare

Strange, how desire doth outrun performance.

— William Shakespeare

Win her with gifts, if she respect not words.

— William Shakespeare

Saint Valentine is past; Begin these woodbirds but to couple now?

— William Shakespeare

Good morrow! 'tis Saint Valentine's Day All in the morning betime. And I a maid at your window To be your Valentine.

— William Shakespeare

Why, 'tis a happy thing To be the father unto many sons.

— William Shakespeare

Fathers that wear rags Do make their children blind, But fathers that bear bags Shall see their children kind.

— William Shakespeare

Now it is the time of night That the graves, all gaping wide, Every one lets forth his sprite, In the church-way paths to glide.

— William Shakespeare

Remember March, the ides of March, remember.

— William Shakespeare

O, how this spring of love resembleth The uncertain glory of an April day, Which now shows all the beauty of the sun, And by and by a cloud takes all away.

— William Shakespeare

In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding. Sweet lovers love the spring.

— William Shakespeare

. . . winter tames man, woman, and beast.. . .

— William Shakespeare

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

— William Shakespeare

Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school.

— William Shakespeare

Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.

— William Shakespeare

One half of me is yours, the other half yours--Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours, And so all yours.

— William Shakespeare

It is to be all made of fantasy, All made of passion, and all made of wishes, All adoration, duty, and observance, All humbleness, all patience and impatience, All purity, all trial, all observance.

— William Shakespeare

I am giddy; expectation whirls me round. Th' imaginary relish is so sweet That it enchants my sense. What will it be, When that the wat'ry palates taste indeed Love's thrice repured nectar? Death, I fear me, Swooning destruction, or some joy too fine, Too subtle, potent, tun'd too sharp in sweetness For the capacity of my ruder powers I fear it much; and I do fear besides That I shall lose distinction in my joys, As doth a battle when they charge on heaps The enemy flying.

— William Shakespeare

She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd, And I lov'd her that she did pity them.

— William Shakespeare

We will have rings and things, and fine array; And kiss me, Kate, we will be married a' Sunday.

— William Shakespeare

Don Pedro: Will you have me, lady? Beatrice : No, my lord, unless I might have another for working days. Your grace is too costly to wear every day.

— William Shakespeare

Dear Isabel, I have a motion much imports your good, Whereto if you'll a willing ear incline, What's mine is yours and what is yours is mine.

— William Shakespeare

I am your wife, if you will marry me; If not, I'll die your maid, To be your fellow You may deny me, but I'll be your servant, Whether you will or no.

— William Shakespeare

One turf shall serve as pillow for us both; One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth.

— William Shakespeare

When I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an eagle's talent in the waist; I could have crept into any alderman's thumb-ring. A plague of sighing and grief! It blows a man up like a bladder.

— William Shakespeare

Do I not bate? Do I not dwindle? Why, my skin hangs about me like an old lady's loose gown; I am wither'd like an old apple-john.

— William Shakespeare

Wooing, wedding, and repenting is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinquepace. The first suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly- modest, as a measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes Repentance and, with his bad legs, falls into the cinquepace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave.

— William Shakespeare

Wedding is great Juno's crown, O blessed bond of board and bed! 'Tis Hymen peoples every town; High wedlock then be honored. Honor, high honor, and renown, To Hymen, god of every town!

— William Shakespeare

Honor, riches, marriage-blessing Long continuance, and increasing, Hourly joys be still upon you!

— William Shakespeare

Alas, sir, In what have I offended you? What cause Hath my behavior given to your displeasure, That thus you should proceed to put me off And take your good grace from me? Heaven witness, I have been to you a true and humble wife, At all times to your will conformable, Ever in fear to kindle your dislike, Yea, subject to your countenance--glad or sorry As I saw it inclin'd.

— William Shakespeare

I will instruct my sorrows to be proud, For grief is proud and makes his owner stoop. To me and to the state of my great grief Let kings assemble, for my grief's so great That no supporter but the huge firm earth Can hold it up.

— William Shakespeare

Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, excessive grief the enemy to the living.

— William Shakespeare

Not a flower, not a flower sweet, On my black coffin let there be strown; Not a friend, not a friend greet My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown. A thousand thousand sighs to save, Lay me, O where Sad true lover never find my grave, To weep there!

— William Shakespeare

I cannot choose but weep, to think they would lay him i' th' cold ground.

— William Shakespeare

A traveler! By my faith, you have great reason to be sad. I fear you have sold your own lands to see other men's. Then to have seen much and to have nothing is to have rich eyes and poor hands.

— William Shakespeare

A good sherris-sack . . . ascends me into the brain, dries me there all the foolish and dull and crudy vapors which environ it, makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery and delectable shapes, which, deliver'd o'er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit.

— William Shakespeare

Good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well us'd. Exclaim no more against it.

— William Shakespeare

Please ye we may contrive this afternoon And quaff carouses to our mistress' health, And do as adversaries do in law, Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.

— William Shakespeare

Very good orators, when they are out, they will spit.

— William Shakespeare

O, reason not the need! our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous. Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man's life is cheap as beast's.

— William Shakespeare

How many things by season season'd are To their right praise and true perfection!

— William Shakespeare

. . . unbidden guests Are often welcomest when they are gone.

— William Shakespeare

I can express no kinder sign of love Than this kind kiss.

— William Shakespeare

Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.

— William Shakespeare

As a long-parted mother with her child Plays fondly with her tears and smiles in meeting, So, weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth, And do thee favors with my royal hands.

— William Shakespeare

Th' appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony.

— William Shakespeare

It gives me wonder great as my content To see you here before me. O my soul's joy! If after every tempest come such calms May the winds blow till they have waken'd death! . . . If I were now to die, 'Twere now to be most happy; for, I fear, My soul hath her content so absolute That not another comfort like to this Succeeds in unknown fate.

— William Shakespeare

Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! And, lips, O you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing death.

— William Shakespeare

The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

— William Shakespeare

'Tis not the many oaths that makes the truth, But the plain single vow that is vow'd true. What is not holy, that we swear not by, But take the High'st to witness.

— William Shakespeare

Those that do teach young babes Do it with gentle means and easy tasks.

— William Shakespeare

It is not politic in the commonwealth of nature to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational increase, and there was never virgin got till virginity was first lost. That you were made of is metal to make virgins. Virginity by being once lost may be ten times found; by being ever kept, it is ever lost. 'Tis too cold a companion; away with 't!

— William Shakespeare

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.

— William Shakespeare

When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now, Will be a tattered weed, of small worth held.

— William Shakespeare

My wife, my wife! What wife? I have no wife. O insupportable! O heavy hour! Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse Of sun and moon, and that th' affrighted globe Should yawn at alteration.

— William Shakespeare

. . . 'tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age, Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburden'd crawl toward death.

— William Shakespeare

If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damn'd.

— William Shakespeare

. . . when thou are old and rich, Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty, To make thy riches pleasant.

— William Shakespeare

I have liv'd long enough. My way of life Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf, And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have.

— William Shakespeare

I am a very foolish fond old man, Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less; And, to deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind.

— William Shakespeare

. . . they say the tongues of dying men Enforce attention like deep harmony. Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain, For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.

— William Shakespeare

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is / To have a thankless child!

— William Shakespeare

He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block.

— William Shakespeare

Neither a borrower nor a lender be: / For loan oft loses both itself and friend.

— William Shakespeare

Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince; / And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

— William Shakespeare

Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs.

— William Shakespeare

Double, double toil and trouble; / Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

— William Shakespeare

’Tis better to be brief than tedious.

— William Shakespeare

Did Cicero say anything? // Ay, he spoke Greek. // To what effect? // Nay … those that understood him smiled at one another, and shook their heads; but, for mine own part, it was Greek to me.

— William Shakespeare

The silence often of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails.

— William Shakespeare

The saying is true, “The empty vessel makes the greatest sound.”

— William Shakespeare

We are arrant knaves all; believe none of us.

— William Shakespeare

Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied; / And vice sometimes by action dignified.

— William Shakespeare

… virtue that transgresses is but patched with sin; and sin that amends is but patched with virtue.

— William Shakespeare

Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.

— William Shakespeare

This above all:—to thine ownself be true, / And it must follow, as the night the day, / Thou canst not then be false to any man.

— William Shakespeare

trust a few, do wrong to none

— William Shakespeare

Rich honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house; as your pearl in a foul oyster.

— William Shakespeare