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100+ Timeless William Shakespeare Quotes for Inspiration
William Shakespeare, often regarded as the greatest playwright and poet of the English language, has left an indelible mark on literature with his profound understanding of human nature. His quotes capture a wide range of emotions and insights, from love and ambition to betrayal and redemption. By exploring Shakespeare's timeless words, we can delve deeper into the complexities of the human experience. This article is designed to present 10 themed collections of his most famous quotations, each under a specific subtitle. Whether you are new to Shakespeare or have long admired his work, these quotes serve as a source of inspiration, reflection, and perhaps even amusement in the modern age.
Love Quotes by William Shakespeare
“The course of true love never did run smooth.” – A Midsummer Night's Dream
“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.” – Sonnet 18
“Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.” – Twelfth Night
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep.” – Romeo and Juliet
“If music be the food of love, play on.” – Twelfth Night
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.” – A Midsummer Night's Dream
“They do not love that do not show their love.” – The Two Gentlemen of Verona
“Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs.” – Romeo and Juliet
“So long as I can breathe or I can see, so long lives your love which gives life to me.” – Sonnet 18
“When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew.” – Romeo and Juliet
“Doubt thou the stars are fire; doubt that the sun doth move; doubt truth to be a liar; but never doubt I love.” – Hamlet
“For where thou art, there is the world itself, and where thou art not, desolation.” – Henry VI, Part 2
Friendship Quotes by William Shakespeare
“A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.”
“I count myself in nothing else so happy as in a soul remembering my good friends.” – Richard II
“Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find.” – The Passionate Pilgrim
“In time we hate that which we often fear.” – Antony and Cleopatra
“A friend should bear his friend's infirmities.” – Julius Caesar
“Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.” – Henry VIII
“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” – The Merchant of Venice
“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” – Troilus and Cressida
“A good leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; a black beard will turn white; a curled pate will grow bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow: but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon.” – Henry V
“Out of your own mouth will determine your truth in friendship.”
“We are advertised by our loving friends.” – Coriolanus
“Friendship is constant in all other things, save in the office and affairs of love.” – Much Ado About Nothing
Wisdom Quotes by William Shakespeare
“To thine own self be true.” – Hamlet
“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” – The Merchant of Venice
“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” – Hamlet
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” – As You Like It
“Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.” – Romeo and Juliet
“Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day.” – Macbeth
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” – The Tempest
“Though she be but little, she is fierce.” – A Midsummer Night's Dream
“Sweet are the uses of adversity.” – As You Like It
“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” – Henry IV, Part 2
“The better part of valor is discretion.” – Henry IV, Part 1
“Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.” – The Merchant of Venice
Life Quotes by William Shakespeare
“Life's 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.” – Macbeth
“The miserable have no other medicine but only hope.” – Measure for Measure
“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” – Julius Caesar
“When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.” – King Lear
“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” – Measure for Measure
“All that glitters is not gold.” – The Merchant of Venice
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” – Twelfth Night
“God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.” – Hamlet
“This above all: to thine own self be true.” – Hamlet
“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.” – Twelfth Night
“The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief.” – Othello
“The golden age is before us, not behind us.” – The Winter's Tale
Ambition Quotes by William Shakespeare
“Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls o' the other side.” – Macbeth
“Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.” – Julius Caesar
“Great ambition is the passion of a great character.”
“This was the noblest Roman of them all. All the conspirators save only he did that they did in envy of great Caesar.” – Julius Caesar
“Men at some time are masters of their fates.” – Julius Caesar
“To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first.” – Henry VIII
“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” – Twelfth Night
“The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.” – Hamlet
“Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing.” – Troilus and Cressida
“For my part, it was Greek to me.” – Julius Caesar
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.” – Julius Caesar
“So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” – Macbeth
Betrayal Quotes by William Shakespeare
“Et tu, Brute?” – Julius Caesar
“For betrayal I am so far and half-hearted!” – Macbeth
“My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break.” – The Taming of the Shrew
“Ingratitude is monstrous, and for the multitude to be ingrateful were to make a monster of the multitude.” – Coriolanus
“O, that way madness lies; let me shun that.” – King Lear
“Who finds the heifer dead and bleeding fresh and sees fast by a butcher with an ax, but will suspect 'twas he that made the slaughter?” – Richard II
“The trust I have is in mine innocence, and therefore am I bold and resolute.” – Richard III
“Time is a very bankrupt and owes more than he's worth to season.” – The Merry Wives of Windsor
“No legacy is so rich as honesty.” – All’s Well That Ends Well
“Treacherous digestion; will the future vindicate all?”
“Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.” – As You Like It
“How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!” – King Lear
Redemption Quotes by William Shakespeare
“The better part of valor is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life.” – Henry IV, Part 1
“Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.” – Henry VI, Part 2
“No sooner met but they looked; no sooner looked but they loved.” – As You Like It
“Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.” – King Lear
“Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have immortal longings in me.” – Antony and Cleopatra
“Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul of the wide world dreaming on things to come can yet the lease of my true love control.” – Sonnet 107
“All days are nights to see till I see thee.” – Sonnet 43
“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.” – All's Well That Ends Well
“He jests at scars that never felt a wound.” – Romeo and Juliet
“What wound did ever heal but by degrees?” – Othello
“There is a tide in the affairs of men.” – Julius Caesar
“It is a wise father that knows his own child.” – The Merchant of Venice
Power Quotes by William Shakespeare
“Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.” – Measure for Measure
“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” – Henry IV, Part 2
“The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.” – Julius Caesar
“Th'affliction of Margaret gives me power.” – Henry VI, Part 2
“What, man! Ne'er pull your hat upon your brows; Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break.” – Macbeth
“Power is the first good.”
“Find we a time for frighted peace to pant.” – King John
“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” – Twelfth Night
“O, that way madness lies; let me shun that.” – King Lear
“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” – Henry IV, Part 2
“But what thou art: a line, a duty, adversity, a grace.”
“Oftentimes, through the sleepless cares of anxiety, the majesty of kings full quickly does crumble.”
Fate Quotes by William Shakespeare
“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” – Julius Caesar
“The wheel is come full circle.” – King Lear
“Men at some time are masters of their fates.” – Julius Caesar
“What’s done is done.” – Macbeth
“To be or not to be, that is the question.” – Hamlet
“Fate, show thy force; ourselves we do not owe.” – Twelfth Night
“The star-crossed fate that doomed lovers seek.”
“True is it that we have seen better days.” – As You Like It
“All's well that ends well.” – All’s Well That Ends Well
“I am not bound to please thee with my answer.” – The Merchant of Venice
“There is a providence in the fall of a sparrow.” – Hamlet
“Such idle dreams belonged not to such idle times.”
Comedy Quotes by William Shakespeare
“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” – The Merchant of Venice
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” – As You Like It
“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.” – Twelfth Night
“A piece of work that will make sick men whole but not a whole made sick.” – Julius Caesar
“Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent.” – Much Ado About Nothing
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” – All's Well That Ends Well
“Make me the sport of it.” – A Midsummer Night's Dream
“He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man.”
“Methought I was enamored of an ass.” – A Midsummer Night's Dream
“Live a little; touch every heart and soul.”
“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” – As You Like It
“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.” – Hamlet
Final words
In the profound words of William Shakespeare, we find a mirror reflecting the complexities of life through the ages. His quotes not only hold the wisdom of his time but continue to resonate with us today, offering insights into our own hopes, fears, and dreams. They remind us of the universal truths that bind humanity across time and culture. Whether pondering the essence of love or contemplating life's many ironies, Shakespeare's words encourage exploration and introspection. His unparalleled ability to articulate the human condition ensures that his works endure, enabling us to derive lessons and inspiration from each word and line. Embracing these quotes can enrich our lives, prompting a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
Explore over 100 of William Shakespeare's most memorable quotes, offering timeless wisdom and inspiration. Dive into the eloquence of Shakespearean language and discover phrases that resonate across the centuries.
