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Famous Quotations
 
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The following are some famous Shakepeare quotations with links to the plays full text.
After Hamlet and Macbeth which have some of the most famous quotations, the plays are in alphabetical order.

 
Sonnet 18
 
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date   (18.1-4)
 
 
Hamlet
 
A little more than kin, and less than kind.   (1.2.66)
 
That it should come to this!   (1.2.139)
 
In my mind's eye   (1.2.188)
 
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.   (1.3.78-80)
 
This above all: to thine ownself be true   (1.3.81)
 
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.   (1.3.82-83)
 
brevity is the soul of wit   (2.2.96)
 
This is the very ecstasy of love   (2.1.112)
 
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.   (2.2.123-125)
 
Though this be madness, yet there is method
in 't.   (2.2.221-222)
 
there is nothing
either good or bad, but thinking makes it so   (2.2.263-264)
 
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals!   (2.2.317-321)
 
the play 's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.   (2.2.615-616)
 
To be, or not to be: that is the question   (3.1.64)
 
conscience does make cowards of us all;      (3.1.91)
 
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.      (3.1.111)
 
The lady protests too much, methinks.    (incidentally is not "doth" protest)   (3.2.227)
 
do you think I am
easier to be played on than a pipe?      (3.2.361-362)
 
I will speak daggers to her, but use none      (3.2.387)
 
When sorrows come, they come not single spies
But in battalions.   (4.5.80-81)
 
 
Macbeth
 
When the battle's lost and won.   (1.1.4)
 
Fair is foul, and foul is fair   (1.1.12)
 
If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me   (1.3.153)
 
nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it; he died
As one that had been studied in his death
To throw away the dearest thing he owed,
As 'twere a careless trifle.   (1.4.8-12)
 
yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness   (1.5.16-17)
 
look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under't.   (1.5.73-74)
 
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.   (1.7.50-51)
 
I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other.   (1.7.25-28)
 
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand?   (2.1.41-42)
 
what's done is done.   (3.2.14)
 
I bear a charmed life   (5.8.15)
 
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,
Making the green one red.   (2.2.75-78)
 
There's daggers in men's smiles   (2.3.174)
 
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.   (4.1.10-11)
 
Out, damned spot! out, I say!   (5.1.31)
 
all the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand.   (5.1.45-47)
 
Out, out, brief candle!
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.    (part of the greatest monologue ever)   (5.5.25-30)
 
 
All's Well That Ends Well
 
My friends were poor, but honest      (1.3.195)
 
Oft expectation fails and most oft there
Where most it promises   (2.1.151)
 
 
Antony and Cleopatra
 
My salad days,
When I was green in judgment   (1.5.86-87)
 
 
As You Like It
 
I like this place.
And willingly could waste my time in it.   (2.4.93-94)
 
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   (2.7.142-145)
 
Blow, blow, thou winter wind.
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude      (2.7.179-181)
 
True is it that we have seen better days   2.7.121)
 
can one desire too much of a good thing?   (4.1.109)
 
For ever and a day.   (4.1.128)
 
'The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man
knows himself to be a fool.'   (5.1.28-29)
 
how bitter a thing it
is to look into happiness through another man's
eyes!   (5.2.42-44)
 
 
Coriolanus
 
Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.   (2.1.5)
 
 
Cymbeline
 
The game is up.   (3.3.115)
 
I have not slept one wink.   (3.4.109)
 
 
Henry IV, part 1
 
he will give the devil his due.   (1.2.114)
 
The better part of
valour is discretion   (5.4.122-123)
 
 
Henry IV, part 2
 
He hath eaten me out of house and home   (2.1.65)
 
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.   (3.1.31)
 
a man can die but once   (3.2.219)
 
I do now remember the poor creature,
small beer.   (2.2.10-11)
 
We have heard the chimes at midnight   (3.2.200)
 
 
King Henry V

that men of few words are the best men   (3.2.34)
 
 
Henry VI, part 1
 
delays have dangerous ends   (3.2.33)
 
Of all base passions, fear is most accursed.   (5.2.18)
 
 
Henry VI, part 2
 
Small things make base men proud   (4.1.110)
 
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.   (4.2.68)
 
True nobility is exempt from fear   (4.1.133)
 
 
Henry VI, part 3
 
The smallest worm will turn being trodden on   (2.2.17)
 
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;   (5.6.11-12)
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.
 
Where having nothing, nothing can he lose.   (3.3.155)
 
 
Henry VIII
 
I would not be a queen
For all the world.   (#2.3.55-56)
 
A load would sink a navy   (3.2.452)
 
 
Julius Caesar
 
Beware the ides of March.   (1.2.21-22)
 
but, for mine own
part, it was Greek to me.   (1.2.289-290)
 
a dish fit for the gods   (2.1.180)
 
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war   (3.1.293)
 
Et tu, Brute!   (3.1.84)
 
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.   (1.2.145-147)
 
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.   (1.2.200-201)
 
Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved
Rome more.   (3.2.23-24)
 
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard.
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.   (2.2.33-38)
 
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.   (3.2.82-83)
 
as he was
valiant, I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, I
slew him.   (3.2.27-30)
 
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men   (3.2.91-92)
 
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff   (3.2.100-101)
 
This was the noblest Roman of them all   (5.5.74)
 
 
King Lear
 
I am sure, my love's
More richer than my tongue.   (1.1.80-81)
 
Nothing will come of nothing   (1.1.93)
 
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!   (1.4.285-286)
 
Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest   (1.4.111-112)
 
We'll set thee to school to an ant,   (2.4.73)
 
I am a man
More sinn'd against than sinning.   (3.2.60-61)
 
the worst is not
So long as we can say 'This is the worst.'   (4.1.31-32)
 
 
Love's Labour's Lost
 
Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye,
Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues   (2.1.15-16)
 
Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire.   (2.1.121)
 
 
Measure for Measure
 
Our doubts are traitors
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.   (1.4.84-86)
 
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall   (2.1.41)
 
The miserable have no other medicine
But only hope:   (3.1.2-3)
 
 
The Merchant of Venice
 
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.   (1.3.98)
 
I like not fair terms and a villain's mind.   (1.3.181)
 
But love is blind and lovers cannot see   (2.6.37)
 
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?   (3.1.59-62)
 
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.   (5.1.97-98)
 
 
The Merry Wives of Windsor
 
the world's mine oyster.   (2.2.2)
 
this is the short and the long of it   (2.2.56)
 
I cannot tell what the dickens his name is   (3.2.14)
 
As good luck would have it   (3.5.71)
 
 
A Midsummer Night's Dream
 
The course of true love never did run smooth   (1.1.136)
 
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind   (1.1.238-239)
 
 
Much Ado About Nothing
 
every one can master a grief but he that has
it.   (3.2.27-28)
 
 
Othello
 
I will wear my heart upon my sleeve   (1.1.65)
 
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
Is the next way to draw new mischief on.   (1.3.221-222)
 
The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief   (1.3.225)
 
Tis neither here nor there.   (4.3.63)
 
 
Richard II
 
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England   (2.1.50)
 
The ripest fruit first falls   (2.1.154)
 
Cry woe, destruction, ruin and decay:
The worst is death, and death will have his day.   (3.2.102-103)
 
 
Richard III
 
Now is the winter of our discontent   (1.1.1)
 
the world is grown so bad,
That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch   (1.3.70-71)
 
So wise so young, they say, do never
live long.   (3.1.79-80)
 
Off with his head!   (3.4.80)
 
An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.   (4.4.366)
 
the king's name is a tower of strength   (5.3.13)
 
Conscience is but a word that cowards use,
Devised at first to keep the strong in awe   (5.3.328-329)
 
A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!   (5.4.7)
 
 
Romeo and Juliet
 
For you and I are past our dancing days   (1.5.30)
 
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!   (1.5.46)
 
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;   (1.5.47-48)
 
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.   (2.2.3)
 
See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand   (2.2.23-24)
 
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?   (2.2.35)
 
Good night, good night! parting is such
sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.   (2.2.198-200)
 
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet   (2.2.45-46)
 
Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.   (2.3.97)
 
Not step o'er the bounds of modesty.   (4.2.27)
 
tempt not a desperate man   (5.3.59)
 
 
Taming of the Shrew
 
I'll not budge an inch   (0.1.12)
 
My tongue will tell the anger of my heart,   (4.3.81)
 
 
The Tempest
 
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.   (4.1.171-173)
 
 
Timon of Athens
 
'We have seen better days.'   (4.2.30)
 
 
Titus Andronicus
 
These words are razors to my wounded heart.   (1.1.319)
 
 
Troilus and Cressida
 
The common
curse of mankind, folly and ignorance   (2.3.26-27)
 
 
Twelfth Night
 
'Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.'   (1.5.31)
 
Love sought is good, but given unsought better.   (3.1.155)
 
out of the jaws of death   (3.4.346)
 
'some are born great, some achieve greatness,
and some have greatness thrown upon them.'   (5.1.378-379)
 
and thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.   (5.1.384)
 
For the rain it raineth every day.   (5.1.400)
 
 
The Winter's Tale
 
You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely.   (1.1.16)
 
What's gone and what's past help
Should be past grief   (3.2.244-245)
 
 
Quotations on love (with links)
Quotations on life (with links)
Quotations on law and lawyers (with links)
Quotations on flowers (with links)
Quotations on sleep (with links)
Quotations references to a candle (with links)
 
Monologues menu (all speeches)
Most famous speeches
Full list of all Shakespeare’s characters (with link for each character)
 

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