48 Selected William Shakespeare Quotes

1. We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
2. Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
3. This life, which had been the tomb of his virtue and of his honour, is 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.
4. It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
5. Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.
6. Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.
7. If music be the food of love, play on.
8. Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.
9. 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.
10. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
11. A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.
12. There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
13. The course of true love never did run smooth.
14. God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.
15. Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.
16. If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?
17. Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.
18. There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
19. Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.
20. Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
21. What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
22. No legacy is so rich as honesty.
23. This above all; to thine own self be true.
24. The wheel is come full circle.
25. Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.
26. Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
27. The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
28. Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.
29. When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.
30. The golden age is before us, not behind us.
31. We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
32. Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.
33. To be, or not to be, that is the question.
34. We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things require a seed to start from... Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing, but all things return dissolved into their elements.
35. I say there is no darkness but ignorance.
36. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
37. The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
38. To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
39. How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
40. Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?
41. When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.
42. What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god.
43. As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.
44. Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.
45. My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy.
46. Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end.
47. And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.
48. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.