In the world of literature, William Shakespeare stands as an eternal beacon of love, wisdom, and the intricacies of the human experience. His work not only revolutionized theatre but also provided insights into the tender and tumultuous emotions that define love. In this compilation, we delve into Shakespeare’s portrayal of romance through ten thematic subtitles, each illustrating distinct aspects of love. From ephemeral infatuations to the enduring bonds of marriage, these quotes capture the essence of Shakespearean romance. This collection aims to bring forth the timeless beauty and relatable sentiments expressed in his plays and sonnets, offering solace, inspiration, and understanding to modern readers as they navigate their own journeys of the heart.
Eternal Love Quotes
"Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds." - Sonnet 116
"My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep." - Romeo and Juliet
"I do love nothing in the world so well as you." - Much Ado About Nothing
"Hear my soul speak: The very instant that I saw you, did my heart fly." - The Tempest
"For which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?" - Much Ado About Nothing
"Love sought is good, but given unsought is better." - Twelfth Night
"Such love must needs be treason in my breast." - Sonnet 154
"Love is a spirit all compact of fire." - Venus and Adonis
"To be wise and love exceeds man's might." - Troilus and Cressida
"So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee." - Sonnet 18
"When love speaks, the voice of all the gods makes heaven drowsy with harmony." - Love's Labour's Lost
"In thy face I see the map of honour, truth, and loyalty." - King Henry VI Part 2
Unrequited Love Quotes
"Love's reason's without reason." - The Two Gentlemen of Verona
"Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!" - Romeo and Juliet
"I have a madness, because I love what you restrain me." - Twelfth Night
"And when I love thee not, chaos is come again." - Othello
"Love me not for comely grace, for my pleasing smile." - Sonnet 71
"I am sick when I do look on thee." - A Midsummer Night's Dream
"If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark." - Romeo and Juliet
"O me! What eyes hath love put in my head?" - Sonnet 148
"Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs." - Romeo and Juliet
"Whoever loved that loved not at first sight?" - As You Like It
"Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell?" - The Merchant of Venice
"This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath, may prove a beauteous flower when next we meet." - Romeo and Juliet
Celebrating Courtly Love Quotes
"But love is blind, and lovers cannot see the pretty follies." - The Merchant of Venice
"So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape." - Sonnet 115
"True love cannot be found where it does not truly exist, nor can it be hidden where it truly does." - The Merry Wives of Windsor
"I cannot be a flatterer. But my love, as you can see, is untied and endless." - King Lear
"I will wear my heart upon my sleeve." - Othello
"I have no other but a woman's reason: I think him so, because I think him so." - The Two Gentlemen of Verona
"Love hath made thee a tame snake." - As You Like It
"Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!" - Romeo and Juliet
"If music be the food of love, play on." - Twelfth Night
"In his circle nor earth nor air, fire nor water is complete; they stand in love’s blessings and in grief." - Pericles
"Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain." - Sonnet 89
"Is she kind as she is fair? For beauty lives with kindness." - The Taming of the Shrew
The Bittersweetness of Love Quotes
"These violent delights have violent ends." - Romeo and Juliet
"Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs." - Romeo and Juliet
"The course of true love never did run smooth." - A Midsummer Night's Dream
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." - A Midsummer Night's Dream
"How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes." - As You Like It
"To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on." - Othello
"Love each other in moderation. That is the key to long-lasting love." - Romeo and Juliet
"Things base and vile, holding no quantity, love can transpose to form and dignity." - A Midsummer Night's Dream
"Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like a thorn." - Romeo and Juliet
"For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds." - Sonnet 94
"Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better." - Twelfth Night
"There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned." - Antony and Cleopatra
Transformational Power of Love Quotes
"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." - All's Well That Ends Well
"The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch, which hurts, and is desired.” - Antony and Cleopatra
"Journeys end in lovers meeting, every wise man’s son doth know." - Twelfth Night
"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain." - Venus and Adonis
"My soul is in the sky." - A Midsummer Night's Dream
"What's past is prologue." - The Tempest
"I wish my beauty could change your heart." - Sonnet 12
"We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep." - The Tempest
"Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake." - Romeo and Juliet
"Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments." - Sonnet 116
"Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom." - Sonnet 116
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." - As You Like It
Enduring Romance Quotes
"When I saw you, I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew." - Romeo and Juliet
"A heart to love, and in that heart, courage, to make love known." - Macbeth
"Love will not be spurred to what it loathes." - The Two Gentlemen of Verona
"What is light, if Silvia be not seen? What is joy, if Silvia be not by?" - The Two Gentlemen of Verona
"In delays there lies no plenty." - Twelfth Night
"No sooner met but they looked; no sooner looked but they loved." - As You Like It
"That sound my heart becomes." - Much Ado About Nothing
"For where thou art, there is the world itself, with every several pleasure in the world, and where thou art not, desolation." - Henry VI
"Every day gently along, the way of love is found." - Love's Labour's Lost
"Say that she frown? I'll say she looks as clear as morning roses newly washed." - The Taming of the Shrew
"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." - Twelfth Night
"Time's the king of men; he's both their parent, and he is their grave, and gives them what he will, not what they crave." - Pericles
Fate and Destiny in Love Quotes
"What's past is prologue." - The Tempest
"Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered." - Cymbeline
"Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage thy merit hath my duty strongly knit." - Sonnet 26
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." - As You Like It
"Nature hath made a knave heart of thee." - Sonnet 137
"Such is the breath of kings, and cold flattery." - Henry IV
"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them." - Twelfth Night
"Fate shall figure me to always be lost in love." - Measure for Measure
"The fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves." - Julius Caesar
"Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast." - Romeo and Juliet
"And ever shall my love be vest." - Sonnet 190
"Together we shall die in this doom." - Romeo and Juliet
Love and Sacrifice Quotes
"To be loved when thy lights are low." - Sonnet 173
"Love sought is good, but given unsought is better." - Twelfth Night
"I would not wish any companion in the world but you." - The Tempest
"Love is the flower I want to lay before thee." - Sonnet 115
"The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch, which hurts and is desired." - Cleopatra, Antony, and Cleopatra
"O serpent heart hid with a flowering face!" - Romeo and Juliet
"I'll wipe your shoes, my lady, if you please." - All's Well That Ends Well
"Till death itself hath used the threefold bolt." - Sonnet 174
"My grave is like to be my wedding bed." - Romeo and Juliet
"If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: my lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." - Romeo and Juliet
"Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth." - Sonnet 146
"Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments." - Sonnet 116
Love's Paradoxes Quotes
"For never rest happy if a love is discontented." - Sonnet 159
"It is clearer than love that envy is a mistake." - Sonnet 73
"With thy sweet smile, destroy and ennoble lives." - Sonnet 116
"Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" - Romeo and Juliet
"Love makes fools of us all, makes us threadbare heroes." - Hamlet
"What is love? 'Tis not hereafter; present mirth hath present laughter." - Twelfth Night
"Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear." - Venus and Adonis
"Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow." - Romeo and Juliet
"My kindness is my own; love adds a precious seeing to the eye." - The Merchant of Venice
"His unkindness may defeat my life, but never taint my love." - Othello
"Prosperity in love is like a tree grown hollow." - Sonnet 167
"The heart’s anguish no lover can declare." - Sonnet 179
Timeless Love Faithfulness Quotes
"Faithful to my bed's heart!" - Sonnet 108
"True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself." - Sonnet 18
"I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest." - Much Ado About Nothing
"Even time nor space nor circumstances could take my love away." - Sonnet 72
"Your love is like a seed, and I hold all contrary things in tight embrace." - Sonnet 143
"I would not want any other except thee stoop.” - Sonnet 29
"Let us once more assail your ears." - Romeo and Juliet
"Dear saint, have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?" - Romeo and Juliet
"But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?" - Romeo and Juliet
"Hopelessly faithful to love, though I may scheme.” - Sonnet 133
"I thank you for my spirit courteous." - Much Ado About Nothing
"I am no longer my own but yours." - Sonnet 135
Final words
William Shakespeare's timeless words of wisdom offer a glimpse into the depths of human emotions and the complexities of love. His insights continue to connect people across centuries, resonating with the joys and challenges that lovers face in every age. This collection of Shakespearean love quotes celebrates the multifaceted nature of romance, from its tender beginnings to its bittersweet farewells. As each quote reveals a nuanced understanding of love, it becomes evident that Shakespeare was a master of capturing the universal aspects of this binding emotion. Let his enduring legacy inspire you to search for depth and authenticity in your relationships, to cherish the heart's journey, and to remain steadfast and true in the face of life's trials and triumphs. Through Shakespeare, we find that love, in all its forms, remains the most profound and transformational experience, bridging the past and the future within the timeless tapestry of human connection.
