Shakespeare Quotes

The wound of peace is surety, surety secure; but modest doubt is call’d the beacon of the wise, the tent that searches to the bottom of the worst.
Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
My true love is grown to such excess, I cannot sum up half my wealth.
Money can turn sworn enemies into the closest of friends.
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
A successful swindler no longer needs to lie to survive, because the people he has deceived have all become his supporters, and whatever I say is in vain.
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
Perfect love weakens the will; imperfect love wounds the heart.
Happy love relaxes the tense heart of a fighter.
Love is like coal: once it is burning, you must find a way to cool it. If you let it burn unchecked, it will scorch the heart to cinders.
Usually, whenever people swear an oath that is hard to keep, they find a way to break the oath while still preserving their reputation.
Unbidden guests are often welcomest when they are gone.
Oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse, as patches set upon a little breach discredit more in hiding of the fault.
A proud man always ends up destroying himself in his own pride.
There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned. The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. Praise that comes from the mouth of an enemy is the only true glory.
What should be given up must never be held on to.
A true fighter is always willing to admit his own defeat.
In delay there lies no plenty; then come kiss me, sweet and twenty; youth’s a stuff will not endure.
Adversity tests a person’s character; only extraordinary circumstances can reveal extraordinary integrity. On a calm sea, every ship can sail alongside the others and compete; but when fate’s iron fist strikes home, only those of great courage and great wisdom can remain composed.
To be, or not to be, that is the question.
To be, or not to be… that is the question.
I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space.
Frailty, thy name is woman!
No one is worth your tears, and the one who is worth them won’t make you cry.
No man or woman is worth your tears, and the one who is, won’t make you cry.
The glittering glory of this world is often born of wickedness, as people sacrifice their conscience for empty fame.
Ingratitude is more hideous in a child than the sea-monster.
If a ewe cannot hear the bleating of her own lamb, she will never answer the cry of a calf.
Youth is a brief, beautiful dream; when you wake, it has already vanished without a trace.
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
God is fair: those who master fate always stand at both ends of the scale, while those mastered by fate only understand the fate God has given them.
Keeping a pure heart is the greatest commandment for the young.
No matter how cormorant devouring Time swallows everything, while we still have breath we must strive to win our fame, so that Time’s scythe cannot harm us. Our lives may come to an end, but our honor shall endure forever.
Books are the nourishment of the whole world.
Don’t abandon the goal you were determined to reach just because of one failure.
If love is mixed with calculations that have nothing to do with love itself, it is not true love.
Countless people fail because they don’t see things through; they often stop when they are only one step away from success.
What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!
He tipped you, so he is a good man; where there are flatterers, there are naturally those who love to be flattered.
Praise loses its worth if it comes from the mouth of the one being praised; only praise from an enemy is true glory.
The night is long that never finds the day. There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.
If you were the lion, the fox would beguile you; if you were the lamb, the fox would eat you; if you were the fox, the lion would suspect you if by chance you were accused by the ass; if you were the ass, your dullness would torment you, and still you would be but a breakfast to the wolf…
The purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation; that away, men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
Empty fame is a base slave that tells flattering lies on every tombstone, while beneath the silent, barren earth often lie the bones of loyal ministers and righteous men.
When the moon shone, we did not see the candle. So doth the greater glory dim the less.
can harm us; our lives may come to an end, but our honor shall endure forever.
Death is a fearful thing. And shamed life a hateful.
Those who love vanity cover an ugly undergarment with a gorgeous coat.
Take honour from me, and my life is done.
Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.
one’s own actions, rather than relying on one’s family name.
Vanity is a worthless, deceitful thing; those who gain it do not necessarily have any merit, and those who lose it are not necessarily at fault.
It is never too late to correct a fault once you recognize it.
Love that is too perfect wounds both the heart and the body; as wanderers of the rivers and lakes, we don’t have time for that.
In the ups and downs of fortune, it is easy to see a person’s integrity.
Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners… whether we let it lie fallow or till it diligently, the power lies in our wills.
In dark days, do not let cruel fate gloat; since fate has come to humiliate us, we should take our revenge by meeting it with composure.
Some kinds of baseness are nobly undergone, and most poor matters point to rich ends.
All things that are, are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.
One fire burns out another’s burning; one pain is lessen’d by another’s anguish.
To thine own self be true, and thou canst not then be false to any man. Habit has an almost miraculous power to change one’s nature: it can let the devil rule the human soul, or drive him out of people’s hearts.
Pride hath no other glass to show itself but pride; bowing and scraping to a proud man only feeds his arrogance and brings humiliation on yourself.
Appearances are often completely at odds with the things themselves; the world is still deceived with ornament. Without comparison, merits cannot show; the crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark when neither is attended. If the nightingale should sing by day amid the cackling, no one would think she sang more beautifully than the wren. How many things by season seasoned are to their right praise and true perfection!
Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders, people’s fear of death is the strangest of all. Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant are more learned than their ears.
I would rather be a wildflower beneath the hedge than a rose living on favors. Better to be scorned by all than to curry favor and steal the affection of others with flattery.
The silence often of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails.
Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt. The best men are moulded out of faults; and a person often becomes all the more lovable for having a small flaw.
A flood can arise from tiny trickles of water.
Words are simple, coming and going as freely as the wind, but sincere friends are hard to find!
Life is like a drunken sailor climbing a mast, liable to fall at any moment.
Women fall in love through their ears; but when men fall in love, they love through their eyes.
The woman is with the ear love, but man if can have love, actually is comes the love with the eye.
Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear.
Hear the murmuring of the woods, and find knowledge in the running brooks.