Quotations from

William Shakespeare

About

Picture of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (c. 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" or simply "the Bard". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, 3 long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

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Quotes from William Shakespeare

Give me that man that is not passion's slave, and I will wear him in my hearts core.

—William Shakespeare

Have you not heard it said full oft, a woman's nay doth stand for naught.

—William Shakespeare

He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such as she;
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.

—William Shakespeare

His life was gentle, and the elements so mix'd in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the world 'This was a man!

—William Shakespeare

Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.

—William Shakespeare

Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.

—William Shakespeare

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'T is mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.

—William Shakespeare

You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, and even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things.

—William Shakespeare

Nature does require her times of preservation.

—William Shakespeare

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow...
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?

—William Shakespeare

Fetter strong madness in a silken thread.

—William Shakespeare

Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense, such a dependency of thing on thing, as e'er I heard in madness.

—William Shakespeare

How comes it, that thou art then estranged from thyself?

—William Shakespeare

Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.

—William Shakespeare

If all the year were playing holidays; To sport would be as tedious as to work.

—William Shakespeare