William Shakespeare, the legendary English playwright and poet, penned some of the most profound, poetic, and powerful lines in the English language. From timeless tales of love and tragedy to biting political drama and comic wit, his works explore the depths of the human experience. Even centuries later, Shakespeare’s words remain relevant, quoted, and revered across the world.
- “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.” – Sonnet 18
- “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep.” – 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
- “If music be the food of love, play on.” – Twelfth Night
- “With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls; for stony limits cannot hold love out.” – Romeo and Juliet
- “I do love nothing in the world so well as you.” – Much Ado About Nothing
- “Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?” – As You Like It
- “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” – As You Like It
- “To be, or not to be: that is the question.” – Hamlet
- “Life’s but a walking shadow… a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” – Macbeth
- “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” – Julius Caesar
- “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” – The Tempest
- “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.” – All’s Well That Ends Well
- “Men at some time are masters of their fates.” – Julius Caesar
- “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” – Hamlet
- “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.” – As You Like It
- “Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.” – Hamlet
- “Strong reasons make strong actions.” – King John
- “What’s done cannot be undone.” – Macbeth
- “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” – Julius Caesar
- “Expectation is the root of all heartache.” – (commonly attributed to Shakespeare)
- “The better part of Valour, is Discretion.” – Henry IV, Part 1
- “The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief.” – Othello
- “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” – Henry IV, Part 2
- “All that glisters is not gold.” – The Merchant of Venice
- “Let me have men about me that are fat… Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look.” – Julius Caesar
- “Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other.” – Macbeth
- “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York.” – Richard III
- “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.” – Hamlet
- “The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.” – Julius Caesar
- “We are such stuff as dreams are made on.” – The Tempest
- “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.” – Hamlet
- “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” – Julius Caesar
- “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” – Macbeth
- “O brave new world that has such people in’t!” – The Tempest
- “Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble.” – Macbeth
- “Brevity is the soul of wit.” – Hamlet
- “Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.” – Twelfth Night
- “I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at.” – Othello
- “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” – As You Like It
- “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” – Twelfth Night
- “Speak low if you speak love.” – Much Ado About Nothing
- “Et tu, Brute?” – Julius Caesar
- “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” – Othello
- “This above all: to thine own self be true.” – Hamlet
- “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” – Hamlet
- “So full of artless jealousy is guilt, it spills itself in fearing to be spilt.” – Hamlet
- “One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.” – Hamlet
- “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” – Measure for Measure
Doubt and fear are often the real enemies of progress.
Shakespeare’s words have survived centuries because they speak to something universal in all of us: our passions, flaws, dreams, fears, and hopes. The Bard has something to say. These quotes aren’t just lines from plays they’re life lessons in poetic form.
