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William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare Quotes

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Famous William Shakespeare Quotes

“If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.”

IfsGivingMayPlayRomanceNightDiesMusicFoodMusic IsGive MeMusicalAppetiteExcessRomantic LoveUnrequited LoveDay And NightMusic LovePlaying MusicUnrequitedI Love MusicNew MusicInspirational MusicPower Of MusicFood LoveMusic SoulMusic LifeMacbeth PlayMusic And LifeMusic Is LifeClassic MusicMusic Is My LifeSweet MusicMusic And LovePowerful MusicMusic And HealingMusic HealingTwelfth Night ImportantNotes MusicFood And LoveNight Love
Author:William Shakespeare
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“He's of the colour of the nutmeg. And of the heat of the ginger.... he is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him, but only in patient stillness while his rider mounts him; he is indeed a horse, and all other jades you may call beasts.”

MayEarthWaterFireAirPureElementsHorsePatientHeatBeastColourDullStillnessRidersGingerJade
Book:Second Tetralogy In Plain and Simple English: Includes Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V
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“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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“I may chance have some odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me, because I have railed so long against marriage: but doth not the appetite alter? a man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age. Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the career of his humour? No, the world must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.”

ThinkingMenWorldShouldMayLongSaidAgeDiesChanceBrainCareersYouthHumourBrokenPaperMarriedEndureSentencesWitOddMeatAweAppetiteBulletsBachelorsRemnantsQuirksQuip
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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“Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep, perchance to dream—For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause, there's the respect, That makes calamity of so long life”

GivingMayLongDreamDeathDiesWishSleepSpeechMortalsLife And DeathPausesLong LifeCalamityHamlet And OpheliaHamlet 2Important HamletMortality In HamletBe Or Not To BeHamlet RevengeMorality In HamletSlings And ArrowsHamlet DeathHamlet Significant
Author:William Shakespeare
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“She never told her love, but let concealment, like a worm 'i th' bud, feed on her damask cheek. She pinned in thought; and, with a green and yellow melancholy, she sat like Patience on a monument, smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed? We men may say more, swear more; but indeed our shows are more than will; for we still prove much in our vows but little in our love.”

MenMayLittlesStillsShowsGriefProveGreenSatMelancholyYellowCheeksSwearOur LoveWormsMonumentVowBudConcealmentTwelfth Night Important
Author:William Shakespeare
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“DON PEDRO Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of Signior Benedick. BEATRICE Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile; and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one: marry, once before he won it of me with false dice, therefore your grace may well say I have lost it. DON PEDRO You have put him down, lady, you have put him down. BEATRICE So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I should prove the mother of fools.”

ShouldWellsHeartMayUseMotherLostLordGraceFoolProveDeceitDiceBenedick
Book:Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
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“So may the outward shows be least themselves: The world is still deceived with ornament. In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil? In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? There is no vice so simple but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.”

WorldMayStillsShowsLawEvilVoiceSimpleVirtueFairsMarkAssumingErrorsVicesAppearanceBlessHidingSoberDeceivedGraciousIn-lawsBrowsOrnamentsTaintedMerchant Of Venice
Author:William Shakespeare
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“My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty. To you I am bound for life and education. My life and education both do learn me How to respect you. You are the lord of my duty, I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband, And so much duty as my mother showed To you, preferring you before her father, So much I challenge that I may profess Due to the Moor my lord.”

MayMotherFatherChallengesLordDutyHusbandDaughterBoundsDuesNoblePerceiveMy HusbandDividedYour DaughterMoors
Book:Romeo and Juliet. Othello. Hamlet. Macbeth. King Lear. Cymbeline. Timon of Athens. Coriolanus. Julius Caesar. Anthony and Cleopatra. Troilus and Cressida. Titus Andronicus. Pericles
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“HAMLET [...] we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table; that's the end. CLAUDIUS Alas, alas. HAMLET A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. CLAUDIUS What dost thou mean by this? HAMLET Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.”

MenMayMeanTwoEndsShowsProgressKingsCreaturesTablesFishesFatsGutsFedsDishesWormsAlasBeggarVariablesMaggots
Author:William Shakespeare
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“Don Pedro - (...)'In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.' Benedick - The savage bull may, but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns and set them in my forehead, and let me be vildly painted; and in such great letters as they writes, 'Here is good horse for hire', let them signify under my sign, 'Here you may see Benedick the married man.”

IfsMenWritingMayBearsMarriedLettersLet MeHorseSensibleSavagesBullsHornsForeheadsPluckYokeMarried ManGood HorseBenedick
Author:William Shakespeare
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“Antonio: Will you stay no longer? nor will you not that I go with you? Sebastian: By your patience, no. My stars shine darkly over me; the malignancy of my fate might, perhaps, distemper yours; therefore I shall crave of you your leave that I may bear my evils alone. It were a bad recompense for your love to lay any of them on you.”

MayMightEvilStarsFateBearsLaysShiningCraveRecompenseAntonioMalignancy
Book:Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will
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“Tam: What begg’st thou then? fond woman, let me go. Lav: ’Tis present death I beg; and one thing more That womanhood denies my tongue to tell. O! keep me from their worse than killing lust, And tumble me into some loathsome pit, Where never man’s eye may behold my body: Do this, and be a charitable murderer. Tam: So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee: No, let them satisfy their lust on thee. Dem: Away! for thou hast stay’d us here too long. Lav: No grace! no womanhood! Ah, beastly creature, The blot and enemy to our general name. Confusion fall—”

MenShouldMayLongBodyEyeFallNamesEnemyGraceOne ThingSonSweetCreaturesLet MeKillingDenyTongueLustConfusionTheeShould IWomanhoodMurdererPitsCharitableFeesLet Me GoBeastly
Book:The Plays of Shakespeare: The Text Regulated by the Old Copies, and by the Recently Discovered Folio of 1632, Containing Early Manuscript Emendations
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“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!”

FirstsMayMadeFoundLostLossColdTenIncreaseRationalPreservesCompanionMetalsVirginsVirginityCommonwealth
Book:A Choice of Shakespeare's Verse
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“IAGO: She that was ever fair and never proud, Had tongue at will and yet was never loud, Never lack'd gold and yet went never gay, Fled from her wish and yet said 'Now I may,' She that being anger'd, her revenge being nigh, Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly, She that in wisdom never was so frail To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail; She that could think and ne'er disclose her mind, See suitors following and not look behind, She was a wight, if ever such wight were,-- DESDEMONA: To do what? IAGO: To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.”

IfsThinkingMindLooksMaySaidWishBehindsFoolProudGayFairsGoldFollowingRevengeTongueBeerLoudTailsFrailSalmonChroniclesDispleasureSuitorsDesdemona
Author:William Shakespeare
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“There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts. There's fennel for you, and columbines: — there 's rue for you; and here's some for me: — we may call it, herb of grace o'Sundays: — you may wear your rue with a difference. — There's a daisy: — I would give you some violets; but they withered all, when my father died: — They say, he made a good end.”

GivingMayMadeEndsRememberJoyFatherDifferencesGraceSweetPrayingDiedSundayRemembranceVioletHerbsRobinsDaisiesPray LoveFather DiedHamlet And OpheliaOpheliaMy Father DiedHamlet OpheliaRuePansiesRosemaryColumbine
Author:William Shakespeare
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