William Shakespeare Quotes

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon” (or simply “The Bard”). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. Shakespeare’s work has made a lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterisation, plot, language, and genre.

“If you love and get hurt, love more.
If you love more and hurt more, love even more.
If you love even more and get hurt even more, love some more until it hurts no more…”

“The course of true love never did run smooth.”

“Listen to many, speak to a few.”

“Brevity is the soul of wit.”

“Don’t waste your love on somebody, who doesn’t value it.”

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

“Look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under it.”

“We know what we are, but not what we may be.”

“Go wisely and slowly. Those who rush stumble and fall.”

“Honesty is the best policy.”

“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”

“Expectation is the root of all heartache.”

“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”

“When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!”

“To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.”

“Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.”

“People’s good deeds we write in water. The evil deeds are etched in brass.”

“If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone.”

“His life was gentle; and the elements
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!”

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”

“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.”

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

“My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break.”

“Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find.”

“Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”

“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.”

“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

“When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.”

“Conscience doth make cowards of us all.”

“There are three people in yourself:Who people think you are, Who you think you are, and who you really are.”

“I love thee, I love thee with a love that shall not die. Till the sun grows cold and the stars grow old.”

“love is blind
and lovers cannot see
the pretty follies
that themselves commit”