Quotes by William Shakespeare (Page 2 of 4)

How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping?

No visor does become black villainy so well as soft and tender flattery.

Nothing routs us but the villainy of our fears.

It is held that valor is the chiefest virtue, and most dignifies the haver.

Light vanity, insatiate cormorant, Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.

Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.

I am wealthy in my friends.

If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

When the age is in, the wit is out.

When we our betters see bearing our woes,
We scarcely think our miseries our foes.

Though Death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.

The wound of peace is surety, Surety secure.

Hung be the heavens with black! Yield, day, to night!

Wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it.

Th abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.

The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untie.

Appetite, a universal wolf.

Sin, that amends, is but patched with virtue.

I desire you in friendship, and I will one way or other make you amends.

It is a sin to be a mocker.

Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy.

Men judge by the complexion of the sky The state and inclination of the day.

Literature is a comprehensive essence of the intellectual life of a nation.

Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know.

Nice customs curtsy to great kings.

Covering discretion with a coat of folly.

Temptation: the fiend at my elbow.

One whom the music of his own vain tongue doth ravish like enchanting harmony.

Every toy is the prologue to some great amiss.

I speak of peace, while covert enmity under the smile of safety wounds the world.

Diseased Nature oftentimes breaks forth In strange eruptions.

Evermore thanks, the exchequer of the poor.

Done to death by slanderous tongue.

There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.

We will all laugh at gilded butterflies.

Get thee a good husband, and use him as he uses thee.

Melancholy is the nurse of frenzy.

Good words are better than bad strokes.

Fill all thy bones with aches.

Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.

Bounty, being free itself, thinks all others so.

Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.

She speaks poniards, and every word stabs.

I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue.

Prosperity's the very bond of love.

They whose guilt within their bosom lies, imagine every eye beholds their blame.

It is the bright day that brings forth the adder, and that craves wary walking.

Et tu Brute!

Though age from folly could not give me freedom, It does from childishness.

By being seldom seen, I could not stir
But like a comet I was wondered at.

We are not the first
Who with best meaning have incurred the worst.

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth.

The wounds invisible that Love's keen arrows make.

Put on
The dauntless spirit of resolution.

Nothing comes from doing nothing.

God grant us patience!

Perseverance, my dear Lord. Keeps honour bright.

Desperate times breed desperate measures.

Women's weapons, water-drops.

You know That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard, And after scandal them.

Twas never merry world Since lowly feigning was called compliment.

To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus.

When truth kills truth, O devilish holy fray!

I prithee give me leave to curse awhile.

Lest too light winning make the prize light.

O, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer!

Blessings of your heart, you brew good ale.

I am afeard few die well that die in a battle.

Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now.

Tis but a base, ignoble mind That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.

Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.

He hath eaten me out of house and home.

Don't judge a man's conscience by looking at his face cause he may have a bad heart.

But no perfection is so absolute, That some impurity doth not pollute.

The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.

Season your admiration for a while.

Sigh no more ladies, sigh no more, men were deceivers ever.

Jesters do oft prove prophets.

An honest man, sir, is able to speak for himself, when a knave is not.

Take all the swift advantage of the hours.

Lions make leopards tame.

But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool.

Lechery, lechery; still, wars and lechery: nothing else holds fashion.

When I waked, I cried to dream again.

Dream in light years, challenge miles, walk step by step.

Time ... thou ceaseless lackey to eternity.

No stony bulwark can resist the love, and love dares what anyone can love.

Love is like a child, That longs for everything it can come by.

It is a good divine that follows his own instructions.

Ships are but boards, sailors but men.

He is well paid that is well satisfied.

The weakest kind of fruit drops earliest to the ground.

We are advertis'd by our loving friends.

I will kill thee a hundred and fifty ways.

We are ready to try our fortunes to the last man.

Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod.

Things base and vile, holding no quantity, love can transpose to form and dignity.

What, can the devil speak true?

To show an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy.

When once our grace we have forgot, Nothing goes right.

The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.

Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so; Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.

Truth is truth to the end of reckoning.

The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?

I do love nothing in the world so well as you- is not that strange?

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

I will speak daggers to her, but use none.

Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?

Beauty itself doth of itself persuade the eyes of men without an orator.

Plain and not honest is too harsh a style.

And oft, my jealousy shapes faults that are not.

Black men are pearls in beauteous ladies' eyes.

Old Time the clock-setter.

Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!

He receives comfort like cold porridge.

For a noble heart, the most precious gift becomes poor, when the giver stops loving.

If we are true to ourselves, we cannot be false to anyone.

The apparel oft proclaims the man.

Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends.

Look how the world's poor people are amazed at apparitions, signs and prodigies!

I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks.

Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground.

To show our simple skill, That is the true beginning of our end.

It is an heretic that makes the fire,
Not she which burns in't.

Security is the chief enemy of mortals.

Better a little chiding than a great deal of heartbreak.

Ay me! sad hours seem long.

Commit the oldest sins the newest kind of ways.

The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness.

The earth, that is nature's mother, is her tomb.

My business was great, and in such a case as mine a man may strain courtesy.

Can I go forward when my heart is here?

Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile; Filths savour but themselves.

There are no tricks in plain and simple faith.

Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.

Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart, or in the head?

Short summers lightly have a forward spring.

I can express no kinder sign of love, than this kind kiss.

Nothing 'gainst Times scythe can make defence.

So quick bright things come to confusion.​​​​​​.

Faster than spring-time showers comes thought on thought.

A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross.

We may outrun By violent swiftness And lose by over-running.

This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad.

By this reckoning he is more a shrew than she.

Is it possible that love should of a sudden take such a hold?

I see a woman may be made a fool, If she had not a spirit to resist.

Tis the mind that makes the body rich.

The poorest service is repaid with thanks.

In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, Shall win my love.

Words spoken can not be recalled so think twice before you speak.

There is nothing so confining as the prisons of our own perceptions.

Art made tongue-tied by authority.

Some innocents 'scape not the thunderbolt.

I have unclasp'd to thee the book even of my secret soul.

Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty.

Enough no more; Tis not so sweet now as it was before.

O, spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou!

Though it be honest, it is never good to bring bad news.

Every fair from fair sometime declines.

None can cure their harms by wailing them.

I am declined
Into the vale of years.

Nothing can seem foul to those who win.

Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used.

Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way.

I am falser than vows made in wine.

Can one desire too much of a good thing?

Trust not your daughter's minds By what you see them act.

Plenty and peace breed cowards; hardness ever of hardiness is mother.

There's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year.

Hasty marriage seldom proveth well.

Where souls do couch on flowers we'll hand in hand.

Hereditary sloth instructs me.

You cannot call it love, for at your age the heyday in the blood is tame.

I could be well content To entertain the lag-end of my life With quiet hours.

And worse I may be yet: the worst is not
So long as we can say 'This is the worst.

Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.

How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!

Juliet is the east and I am the sun.

Blind is his love, and best befits the dark.

For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

He that hath the steerage of my course, Direct my sail.

Some grief shows much of love, But much of grief shows still some want of wit.

He jests at scars that never felt a wound.

By Heaven, I love thee better than myself.

Young men's love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.

O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle.

Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot. Take thou what course thou wilt.

Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.

The silence often of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails.

Faint heart never won fair maid.

I love thee; none but thee, and thou deservest it.

Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.

In scorn of nature, art gave lifeless life.

He will fence with his own shadow.

A heavy heart bears not a nimble tongue.

I profess not talking: only this, Let each man do his best.

Happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending.