William Shakespeare Quotes

Though inclination be as sharp as will, My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent, And, like a man to double business bound, I stand in pause where I shall first begin, And both neglect.

It is a familiar beast to man, and signifies love.

We do not keep the outward form of order, where there is deep disorder in the mind.

Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing.

Cursed be he that moves my bones.

I pray you bear me henceforth from the noise and rumour of the field, where I may think the remnant of my thoughts in peace, and part of this body and my soul with contemplation and devout desires.

I'll teach you differences.

Words to deeds cold breath gives.

Aand in the end, Having my freedom, boast of nothing else But that I was a journeyman to grief?

Can we outrun the heavens?

It is thyself, mine own self's better part; Mine eye's clear eye, my dear heart's dearer heart; My food, my fortune, and my sweet hope's aim, My sole earth's heaven, and my heaven's claim.

Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones!

The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love, The matron's glance that would those looks reprove.

You are my true and honourable wife; As dear to me as the ruddy drops That visit my sad heart.

O, what damned minutes tells he o'er Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet fondly loves!

Good counselors lack no clients.

For precious friends hid in death's dateless night.

The labor we delight in physics [cures] pain.

If fortune torments me, hope contents me.

Care is no cure, but rather corrosive, For things that are not to be remedied.

ROSS You must have patience, madam. LADY MACDUFF He had none: His flight was madness: when our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors.

A noble shalt thou have, and present pay; And liquor likewise will I give to thee, And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood.

He was not so much brain as earwax

To wilful men, the injuries that they themselves procure must be their schoolmasters.

Be still prepared for death: and death or life shall thereby be the sweeter.

Trust not my reading, nor my observations, Which with experimental seal do warrant The tenor of my book.

Lady, with me, with me thy fortune lies.

Which means she to deceive, father or mother?

We are advertis'd by our loving friends.

Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian or an ordinary man has; but I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.

Constant you are, But yet a woman; and for secrecy, No lady closer; for I well believe Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know.

Fie, thou dishonest Satan! I call thee by the most modest terms; for I am one of those gentle ones that will use the devil himself with courtesy: sayest thou that house is dark?

Is twenty hundred kisses such a trouble?

You kiss by th' book.

Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast, Ready with every nod to tumble down Into the fatal bowels of the deep.

Think'st thou I'd make a life of jealousy, To follow still the changes of the moon With fresh suspicions? No; to be once in doubt Is once to be resolved.

All is well ended if this suit be won. That you express content; which we will pay, With strife to please you, day exceeding day.

O! that a man might know The end of this day's business, ere it come; But it sufficeth that the day will end, And then the end is known.

Dreams are the children of idled minds.

Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim, When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid!

No worse a husband than the best of men.

Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me.

My glass shall not persuade me I am old, So long as youth and thou are of one date; But when in thee time's furrows I behold, Then look I death my days should expiate.

I have seen better faces in my time Than stands on any shoulder that I see Before me at this instant.

By the apostle Paul, shadows tonight Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers.

GLOUCESTER: I do not know that Englishman alive With whom my soul is any jot at odds, More than the infant that is born to-night: I thank my God for my humility.

Well, God's above all; and there be souls must be saved, and there be souls must not be saved.

Help, master, help! here's a fish hangs in the net, like a poor man's right in the law; 'twill hardly come out.

When I have plucked the rose, I cannot give it vital growth again, It needs must wither. I'll smell it on the tree.

Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant can trickle when she wounds!