Best William Shakespeare Quotes

These are some of the best William Shakespeare quotes, in my opinion. From my days studying English literature in school he has been an inspiration and a joy to read. Born in 1564, he died in 1616 and his literary works forever changed the landscape of English and World Literature.

William Shakespeare Quotes

• "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."

• "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so."

• "Better three hours too soon than a minute too late."

• "No legacy is so rich as honesty."

• "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."

• "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?"

• "A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."

• "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."

• "Listen to many, speak to a few."

• "We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep."
  
  
• "The course of true love never did run smooth."

• “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.”

More William Shakespeare quotes below.

More William Shakespeare Quotes

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

• "In a false quarrel there is no true valor."

• "How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world."

• "And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse."

• "There is no darkness but ignorance."
  

• "Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair."

• "The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream."

• "Suit the action to the word, the word to the action."

• "The empty vessel makes the loudest sound."

• "To be, or not to be: that is the question:
  Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
  The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
  Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
  And by opposing end them?"

• "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."

• “Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt.”

More William Shakepseare quotes below.

Even More William Shakespeare Quotes

• "Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself."

• "How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?"

• "If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottage princes' palaces."

• "The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief."

• "Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast."

• "Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving."

• "The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch, which hurts and is desired."

• "But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive."

• "They do not love that do not show their love."

• "Nothing can come of nothing."

• "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions."

• 'Tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems."
  
  

More Famous Quotes

I trust you have enjoyed these William Shakespeare quotes. Here are more famous quotes for you.