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William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare Quotes

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Famous William Shakespeare Quotes

“Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner. BENEDICK Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains. BEATRICE I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would not have come. BENEDICK You take pleasure then in the message? BEATRICE Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point ... You have no stomach, signior: fare you well. Exit BENEDICK Ha! 'Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner;' there's a double meaning in that... (Much Ado About Nothing)”

IfsWellsMayPainPleasureMessagesFairsPainfulDinnerThanksStomachKnivesExitBenedickDouble MeaningNo More Pain
Book:Much Ado About Nothing
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“LEONATO Neighbours, you are tedious. DOGBERRY It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the poor duke's officers; but truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a king, I could find it in my heart to bestow it all of your worship.”

IfsHeartPoorMinesKingsMy HeartPleaseWorshipOfficersNeighbourTediousDukes
Book:The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works
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“If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide, By self-example mayst thou be denied.”

IfsSelfExampleDenied
Book: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_
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“That man that hath a tongue, I say is no man, if with his tongue he cannot win a woman.”

IfsMenLoveWinningTongueMemorableWooing
Book:The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare: From the Text of Johnson, Stevens, and Reed; with Glossarial Notes, His Life, and a Critique on His Genius & Writings
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“I’ll look to like, if looking liking move; But no more deep will I endart mine eye than your consent gives strength to make it fly.”

IfsGivingLooksEyeMovingMinesConsentJulietRomeo And Juliet PlayRomeo JulietRomeo And Juliet JulietRomeo And Juliet Romeo
Book:The plays of William Shakespeare: in twenty-one volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators, to which are added notes
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“Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, Of habits devil, is angel yet in this, That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock or livery That aptly is put on. Refrain tonight, And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence; the next more easy; For use almost can change the stamp of nature.”

IfsGivingKindUseActionNextEasyVirtueHabitDevilAngelFairsAssumingMonstersTonightCustomsStampsRefrainAbstinenceEasinessHamlet Love
Author:William Shakespeare
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“Therefore was I created with a stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that when I come to woo ladies, I fright them. But, in faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the better I shall appear. My comfort is that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no more spoil upon my face. Thou hast me, if thou hast me, at the worst, and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better.”

IfsAgeFacesCan DoWorstComfortAspectIllOld AgeIronLayersStubbornEldersSpoilKateFright
Book:Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
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“Where is Polonius? HAMLET In heaven. Send hither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i' th' other place yourself. But if indeed you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.”

IfsHeavenMonthsNosesStairsMessengersSinisterPolonius
Book:Making Sense of Hamlet! a Students Guide to Shakespeare's Play (Includes Study Guide, Biography, and Modern Retelling)
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“Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices, That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open, and show riches Ready to drop upon me; that, when I waked, I cried to dream again.”

IfsGivingLongSometimesShowsDreamSoundVoiceHurtSleepAirMinesReadySweetThousandEarsInstrumentsCloudsDelightRichesNoiseCriedTempestIsleSleep And DreamSleep DreamCalibanLong Sleep
Author:William Shakespeare
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“Prophet may you be! If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth, when time is old and hath forgot itself, when waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy, and blind oblivion swallowed cities up, and mighty states characterless are grated to dusty nothing, yet let memory, from false to false, among false maids in love, upbraid my falsehood!”

IfsMayStatesMemoriesCitiesHairStonesBlindProphetFalsehoodWornOblivionMaidsSwerveUpbraidCharacterless
Book:Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
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“Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that. It was the very day that young Hamlet was born, he that is mad and sent into England." "Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?" "Why, because he was mad. He shall recover his wits there, or, if he do not, it's no great matter there." "Why?" "'Twill not be seen in him there. There the men are as mad as he.”

IfsMenMatterYoungBornFoolEnglandMadWit
Book:Cassell's illustrated Shakespeare. The plays of Shakespeare, ed. and annotated by C. and M.C. Clarke, illustr. by H.C. Selous
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“No longer mourn for me when I am dead than you shall hear the surly sullen bell give warning to the world that I am fled from this vile world with vilest worms to dwell: nay, if you read this line, remember not the hand that writ it, for I love you so, that I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot, if thinking on me then should make you woe. O! if, I say, you look upon this verse when I perhaps compounded am with clay, do not so much as my poor name rehearse; but let your love even with my life decay; lest the wise world should look into your moan, and mock you with me after I am gone.”

IfsThinkingWorldGivingShouldLooksHandsWould BeRememberNamesLinesPoorGoneWiseLove YouSweetWarningBellsDecayVersesWoeWormsClaySonnetMournMockSullenSurlySweet Thoughts
Author:William Shakespeare
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“No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison: We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage: When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down, And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too, Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out; And take upon's the mystery of things, As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out, In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones, That ebb and flow by the moon.”

IfsTwoAsksWinningLosesPoorLaughingMysteryWallPrayingBlessingMoonNewsBirdFlowDown AndCourtPrisonTalesTheeAsk MeButterflyPacksCagesSpySectsGreat OnesRoguesEbb And FlowGildedCordelia
Author:William Shakespeare
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“Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall, and a preserving sweet. *Here’s what love is: a smoke made out of lovers' sighs. When the smoke clears, love is a fire burning in your lover’s eyes. If you frustrate love, you get an ocean made out of lovers' tears. What else is love? It’s a wise form of madness. It’s a sweet lozenge that you choke on.*”

IfsMadeEyeFormLove IsFireWiseSeaLove YouTearsSweetLoversOceanMadnessRaisedBurningSmokeSighChokeSparklingDiscreetFire BurningLovers Eyes
Author:William Shakespeare
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“If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumbered here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: If you pardon, we will mend: And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue, We will make amends ere long; Else the Puck a liar call; So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends.”

IfsThinkingGivingLongDreamHandsNightVisionHonestShadowWeakGive MeLuckTongueThemeLiarsIdleOffendedPardonSerpentGood NightRobinsPuckAmendsMidsummerMidsummer Night's DreamDead Poets SocietyMid Summer Nights DreamScapes
Author:William Shakespeare
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“Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up tine, supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills.”

IfsBodyLyingIndustryAuthorityGardenPlantGenderWeedIdlenessGardenerHerbsLettuceNettles
Book:Othello
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“To die, is to be banish'd from myself; And Silvia is myself: banish'd from her, Is self from self: a deadly banishment! What light is light, if Silvia be not seen? What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by? Unless it be to think that she is by, And feed upon the shadow of perfection. Except I be by Silvia in the night, There is no music in the nightingale; Unless I look on Silvia in the day, There is no day for me to look upon; She is my essence, and I leave to be, If I be not by her fair influence Foster'd, illumin'd, cherish'd, kept alive.”

IfsThinkingLooksSelfLightJoyNightDiesAliveInfluenceShadowFairsPerfectionEssenceCherishNightingalesBanishment
Author:William Shakespeare
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“He reads much; He is a great observer and he looks Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays, As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music; Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort As if he mock'd himself and scorn'd his spirit That could be moved to smile at any thing. Such men as he be never at heart's ease Whiles they behold a greater than themselves, And therefore are they very dangerous.”

IfsMenLooksHeartPlaySpiritGreaterDangerousMovedDeedsEaseObserversScornMockAntony
Author:William Shakespeare
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“If there were a sympathy in choice, War, death, or sickness, did lay siege to it, Making it momentary as a sound, Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, Brief as the lightning in the collied night That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!' The jaws of darkness do devour it up; So quick bright things come to confusion.”

IfsMenWarDreamEarthNightChoicesHeavenSoundDarknessShadowLaysConfusionSicknessLightningHeaven And EarthMomentarySiegeMidsummer Night's DreamSpleen
Author:William Shakespeare
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“Is there no pity sitting in the clouds That sees into the bottom of my grief? O sweet my mother, cast me not away! Delay this marriage for a month, a week, Or if you do not, make the bridal bed In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.”

IfsLyingMotherGriefWeekSweetMonthsBedSittingBottomCloudsCastsPityDelayMonumentJulietRomeo And Juliet PlayRomeo JulietRomeo And Juliet JulietRomeo And Juliet RomeoBridalRomeo And Juliet ImportantTybalt
Book:The plays of William Shakespeare: in twenty-one volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators, to which are added notes
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“Care for us! True, indeed! They ne'er cared for us yet: suffer us to famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich, and provide more piercing statutes daily to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear us.”

IfsWarCareSufferingPoorSupportRichBearsChainsGrainStatutesPiercingsUsury
Book:Coriolanus
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