“But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool.”
“Winter, which, being full of care, makes summer's welcome thrice more wish'd, more rare.”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“If wishes would prevail with me, my purpose should not fail with me.”
Source: Winter's tale. King John. King Richard II. King Henry IV, part 1. King Henry IV, part 2. Henry V. King Henry VI, part 1
“Wishers were ever fools.”
Source: The Shakespeare Argosy: Containing Much of the Wealth of Shakespeare's Wisdom and Wit
“Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man.”
“A man in all the world's new fashion planted, That hath a mint of phrases in his brain.”
“O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible, As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on a steeple.”
Source: Shakespere's Werke
“Let me not live, after my flame lacks oil, to be the snuff of younger spirits.”
Source: The New Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works
“I thank God I am not a woman, to be touched in so many giddy offences as He hath generally taxed their whole their whole sex withal.”
“The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle that's curded by the frost from purest snow.”
Source: The plays of William Shakespeare
“He's loved of the distracted multitude, who like not in their judgement, but their eyes.”
Source: Hamlet: Third Series
“What is a man, if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.”
“The fortune of us that are the moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is, by the moon.”
Source: Histories of Shakespeare in Plain and Simple English (a Modern Translation and the Original Version)
“The old folk, time's doting chronicles.”
Source: King Henry IV Part 2: Third Series
“Do not cast away an honest man for a villain's accusation.”
Source: The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works
“Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud; but, God He knows, thy share thereof is small.”
Source: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Deluxe Annotated: Suitable for Home Reading, Academic Study, and Dramatic Productions
“To gild refined gold, to paint the lily... is wasteful and ridiculous excess”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“[Marriage is] a world-without-end bargain.”
Source: Shakespeare: A Book of Quotations
“Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feelings as to sight?”
“The expedition of my violent love outrun the pauser, reason.”
Source: The Tragedy of Macbeth
“There is a devilish mercy in the judge, if you'll implore it, that will free your life, but fetter you till death.”
Source: The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare: From the Text of the Corrected Copies of Steevens and Malone, with a Life of the Poet
“Though music oft hath such a charm to make bad good, and good provoke to harm.”
“You shall more command with years than with your weapons.”
Source: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works
“To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength, gives in your weakness strength unto your foe.”
Source: The Wars of the Roses In Plain and Simple English: Includes Henry VI Parts 1 - 3 & Richard III, Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V
“Show me a mistress that is passing fair, what doth her beauty serve but as a note where I may read who pass'd that passing fair?”
Source: Romeo and Juliet
“Women being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the walls.”
Source: Romeo and Juliet
“How much more doth beauty beauteous seem by that sweet ornament which truth doth give!”
“The fool multitude, that choose by show, not learning more than the fond eye doth teach.”
“Look on beauty, and you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight.”
“Ornament is but the guiled shore to a most dangerous sea.”
Source: The Merchant of Venice
“Ask me no reason why I love you; for though Love use Reason for his physician, he admits him not for his counsellor.”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“How hard it is for women to keep counsel!”
“It easeth some, though none it ever cured, to think their dolour others have endured.”
Source: Sonnets and Other Poems
“Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor; for 'tis the mind that makes the body rich”
Source: The dramatic works and poems of William Shakespeare, with notes, original and selected, and introductory remarks to each play
“My heart suspects more than mine eye can see.”
Source: The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works
“Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom passing fair,
Playing in the wanton air:
Through the velvet leaves the wind,
All unseen can passage find;
That the lover, sick to death,
Wish'd himself the heaven's breath.”
Source: Shakespeare's Plays: With His Life
“To persist in doing wrong extenuates not the wrong, but makes it much more heavy.”
“Sweet recreation barred, what doth ensue but moody and dull melancholy, kinsman to grim and comfortless despair.”
Source: The Plays of William Shakespeare. In Ten Volumes. With the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators; to which are Added Notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. With an Appendix..
“Experience teacheth that resolution is a sole help in need.”
Source: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: All 214 Plays, Sonnets, Poems & Apocryphal Plays (Including the Biography of the Author): Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello, The Tempest, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard III, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, The Comedy of Errorsäó_
“All pity choked with custom of fell deeds.”
Source: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
“The undeserver may sleep when the man of action is called on.”
Source: King Henry IV Part 2: Second Series
“Were it good
To set the exact wealth of all our states
All at one cast? to set so rich a main
On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
It were not good.”
Source: Henry IV
“That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.”
“It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught as men take diseases, one of another.”
Source: King Henry IV Part 2: Third Series
“They say, the tongues of dying men
Enforce attention, like deep harmony;
Where words are scarce, they're seldom spent in vain;
For they breathe truth, that breathe their words in pain.”
Source: King Richard II: Third Series
“Faint heart never won fair maid.”
“Though justice be thy plea consider this, that in the course of justice none of us should see salvation.”
“The past is prologue.”
“A pal is one that is aware you while you are, understands where you have already been, accepts whatever you are becoming, and continue to, carefully means that you can develop.”
“Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.”
