101 of My Favorite Shakespearian Quotes


1.  "But there's more in me than thou understand'st." Troilus and Cressida,
    Act IV. sc. 5.

2.  "Be patient, for the world is broad and wide." Romeo and Juliet, Act.
    III. sc. 3.

3.  "Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends." First Part of Henry VI. 
    Act III. sc. 2.

4.  "Be to yourself as you would to your friend."  Henry VIII.  
    Act V. sc.1.

5.  "I like your silence, it the more shows off your wonder." Winter's 
    Tale, Act V.  Sc 1.

6.  "The elements be kind to thee, and make thy spirits all of comfort!"
    Antony and Cleopatra, Act III. sc. 2.

7.  "How many things by season season'd are to their right praise and true
    perfection." Merchant of Venice, Act V. sc. 1.

8.  "Of all say'd yet, may'st thou prove prosperous.  Of all say'd yet, I
    wish thee happiness."  Pericles, Act I. sc. 1.

9.  "Day serves not light more faithful than I'll be."  Pericles, Act I.
    sc. 2.

10.  "They say best men are moulded out of faults."  Measure for Measure,
     Act V. sc. 1.

11.  "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness
     thrown upon them."  Twelfth Night, Act V. sc. 1.

12.  "Our wills and fates do so contrary run that our devices still are
     overthrown; Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own."
     Hamlet, Act III. sc. 2.

13.  "What's in a name?  That which we call a rose, by any other name
     would smell as sweet."  Romeo and Juliet, Act II. sc. 2.

14.  "I must have patience to endure the load."  Richard III, Act III.
     sc. 7.

15.  "Ay, me!  For aught that I could never read, could never hear by 
     tale or history, the course of true love never did run smooth."
     Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III. sc. 5.

16.  "Who is it that says most?  Which can say more than this rich praise,
     that you alone are you?"  Sonnet LXXXIV.

17.  "Truth needs no colour--Beauty no pencil."  Sonnet CI.

18.  "For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
     Hamlet, Act III. sc. 1.

19.  "I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say--I love you."
     Henry V.  Act V. sc. 2.

20.  "Let myself and fortune tug for the time to come."  Winter's Tale,
     Act IV. sc. 1.

21.  "Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise."
     King Lear, Act I. sc. 5.

22.  "A double blessing is a double grace."  Hamlet, Act I. sc. 3.

23.  "Your gentleness shall force more than your force move us to
     gentleness."  As You Like It, Act II. sc. 7.

24.  "Time is the king of men, he's both their parent, and he is their
     grave, and he gives them what he will, not what they crave."
     Pericles, Act II. sc.3.

25.  "For I profess not talking; only this--let each man do his best."
     First Part of Henry IV.  Act II. sc. 4.

26.  "Society is no comfort to one not sociable."  Cymbeline, Act II.
     sc. 2.

27.  "In the world I fill up up a place, which may be better supplied 
     when I have made it empty."  As You Like It, Act I. sc. 2.

28.  "Happy thou art not; for what thou hast not, still thou strivest 
     to get, and what thou hast, forget'st."  Measure for Measure,
     Act V. sc. 1.

29.  "Her whose worth makes other worthies nothing.  She is alone."  Two
     Gentlemen of Verona, Act II. sc. 1.

30.  "Let Hercules himself do what he may, the cat will mew, and dog will
     have his day."  Hamlet, Act V. sc. 1.

31.  "Let us not burden our remembrance with a heaviness that's gone."
     Tempest, Act I. sc. 1.

32.  "Let our old acquaintance be renewed."  Second Part of Henry IV.
     Act II. sc. 2.

33.  "I would applaud thee to the very echo, that should applaud again."
     Macbeth, Act V. sc. 1.

34.  "I cannot hide what I am."  Much Ado about Nothing, Act I. sc. 1.

35.  "Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love."
     Taming of the Shrew, Act V. sc. 2.

36.  "We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is
     rounded with a sleep."  Tempest, Act IV. sc. 1.

37.  "Sweet flowers are slow, and weeds make haste."  Richard III,
     Act II. sc. 4.

38.  "Why, what's the matter, that you should have such a February face,
     so full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness?"  Much Ado about Nothing,
     Act V. sc. 5.

39.  "What's gone and what's past help should be past grief."  Winter's
     Tale, Act III. sc. 2.

40.  "We should do when we would; for this 'would' changes."  Hamlet,
     Act IV. sc. 8.

41.  "We are not the first who, with the best meaning, have incurred the
     worst."  King Lear, Act V. sc. 3.

42.  "If we do now make our atonement well our peace will, like a broken
     limb united, grow stronger for the breaking."  Second Part of King
     Henry IV. Act IV. sc. 1.

43.  "O call back yesterday, bid time return."  Richard II.
     Act III. sc. 2.

44.  "Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy:  This wide and universal
     theatre presents more woeful pageants than the scene wherein we play
     in." As You Like It, Act II. sc. 7.

45.  "How poor are they that have no patience!  What wound did ever heal
     but by degrees?"  Othello, Act II. sc. 3.

46.  "Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you!"  Merchant of Venice,
     Act III. sc. 4.

47.  "Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find."
     Sundry Sonnets, XXI.

48.  "Be merry; you have cause, so have we all, of joy; for our escape is
     much beyond our loss.....then wisely weigh our sorrow with our 
     comfort." Tempest, Act II. sc. 1.

49.  "I'll note you in my book of memory."  First Part of Henry VI.
     Act II. Sc. 4.

50.  "When love begins to sicken and decay, it useth an enforced ceremony.
     There are no tricks in plain and simple faith."  Julius Cæsar,
     Act IV. sc. 2.

51.  "Friendship is constant in all other things save in the office and
     affairs of love:  Therefore all hearts in love use there own tongues;
     Let every eye negotiate for itself, and trust no agent." Much Ado
     about Nothing, Act II, sc. 1.

52.  "Thou hast a perfect thought:  I will upon all hazards well believe
     thou art my friend, that know'st my tongue so well."  King John,
     Act V. sc. 6.

53.  "The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord
     of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils,....Let
     no such man be trusted."  Merchant of Venice, Act V. sc. 1.

54.  "To be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born
     in a merry hour."  Much Ado about Nothing, Act II. sc. 1.

55.  "To business that we love we rise betimes, and go to 't with delight."
     Antony and Cleopatra, Act, IV. sc. 4.

56.  "Whate'er it to be, be thou still like thyself, and sit thee by our
     side: yield not thy neck to fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind
     still ride in triumph over all mischance."  Third Part of Henry VI.
     Act III. sc. 3.

57.  "I do love nothing in the world so well as you:  is not that strange?"
     Much Ado about Nothing, Act IV. sc. 1.

58.  "One fire burns out another's burning, one pain is lessen'd by
     another's anguish."  Romeo and Juliet, Act I. sc. 2.

59.  "...Welcome ever smiles, and farewell goes out sighing."  Troilus and
     Cressida, Act III. sc. 3.

60.  "What I can do, can do no hurt to try."  All's Well that Ends Well,
     Act II. Sc. 1.

61.  "The hand that made you fair hath made you good."  Measure for
     Measure, Act III. sc. 1.

62.  "Let's further think of this; weigh what convenience both of time and
     means may fit us to our shape."  Hamlet, Act IV. sc. 7.

63.  "Striving to better, oft we mar what's well." King Lear, Act I. sc. 4.

64.  "I would not wish any companion in the world but you."  Tempest,
     Act III. sc. 1.

65.  "The setting sun, and music at the close, as the last taste of sweets,
     is sweetest last, writ in remembrance more than things long past."
     Richard II.  Act II. sc. 1.

66.  "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?  Thou art more lovely and
     more temperate."  Sonnet XVIII.

67.  "I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a
     fool when he dedicates his behaviours to love, will, after he hath
     laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his
     own scorn by falling in love."  Much Ado about Nothing, Act II. sc. 3.

68.  "We do pray for mercy; and that same prayer doth teach us all to
     render the deeds of mercy."  Merchant of Venice, Act IV. sc. 1.

69.  "Men of few words are the best men."  Henry V.  Act III. sc. 2.

70.  "We know what we are, but know not what we may be."  Hamlet,
     Act IV. Sc. 5.

71.  "We are not ourselves when nature, being oppress'd, commands the
     mind to suffer with the body."  King Lear, Act II. sc. 4.

72.  "My salad days, when I was green in judgement."  Antony and Cleopatra,
     Act I. sc. 5.

73.  "Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss, but cheerily seek how to
     redress their harms."  Third Part of Henry VI.  Act V. sc. 4.

74.  "Blessed are the peacemakers on earth."  Second Part of Henry VI.
     Act II. sc. 1.

75.  "The while I think on thee, dear friend.  All losses are restored and
     sorrows end."  Sonnet XXX.

76.  "How green you are, and fresh, in this old world!"  King John,
     Act III. sc. 4.

77.  "The love that follows us sometimes is our trouble, which still we
     thank as love."  Macbeth, Act IV. sc. 3.

78.  "Every one can master a grief but he that has it."  Much Ado about
     Nothing, Act III. sc. 2.

79.  "I am not of that feather to shake off my friend when he must need
     me."  Timon of Athens, Act I, sc. 1.

80.  "Silence is the perfectest herald of joy:  I were but little happy,
     if I could say how much."  Much Ado about Nothing, Act II. sc. 1.

81.  "For some must watch, while some must sleep:  So runs the world
     away."  Hamlet, Act III. sc. 2.

82.  "Let me be what I am, and seek not to alter me."  Much Ado about
     Nothing, Act I. sc. 2.

83.  "Things past redress are now with me past care."  Richard II,
     Act II. sc. 3.

84.  "Our very eyes sometimes, like our judgements, blind."  Cymbeline,
     Act IV. sc. 2.

85.  "I cannot but remember such things were, that were most precious to
     me."  Macbeth, Act IV. sc. 3.

86.  "I count myself in nothing else so happy as in a soul remembering my
     good friends."  Richard II.  Act II. sc. 3.

87.  "I hear, yet say not much, but think the more."  Third Part of
     Henry VI. Act IV. sc. 1.

88.  "To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first."  Henry VIII.
     Act I. sc. 1.

89.  "Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well."  Romeo and Juliet,
     Act V. sc. 3.

90.  "Great floods have flown from simple sources." All's Well that Ends
     Well, Act II. sc. 1.

91.  "In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire with good old folks."
     Richard II.  Act V.  Sc 1.

92.  "Sudden sorrow serves to say thus, some good things come
     to-morrow."  Second Part of Henry IV.  Act IV. sc. 2.

93.  "O, how this discord doth afflict my soul!"  First Part of Henry VI.
     Act III. sc. 1.

94.  "The smallest worm will turn being trodden on."  Third Part of Henry
     VI.  Act I. sc. 2.

95.  "So every bondman in his own hand bears the power to cancel his
     captivity."  Julius Cæsar, Act I. sc. 3.

96.  "I am not of many words, but I thank you."  Much Ado about Nothing,
     Act I. sc. 1.

97.  "Things at the worst will cease."  Macbeth, Act IV. sc. 2.

98.  "For I know thou'rt full of love and honesty, and weigh'st thy words
     before thou givest them breath."  Othello, Act III. sc. 3.

99.  "Let's teach ourselves that honourable stop, not to outsport
     discretion." Othello, Act II. sc. 3.

100.  "The time of life is short!  To spend that shortness basely were too
      long, if life did ride upon a dial's point, still ending at the
      arrival of an hour."  First Part of Henry IV.  Act. V. sc. 2.

101.  "Men at times are master's of their fates:  The falt...is not in our
      stars, But in ourselves." Julius Cæsar, Act I. sc. 2.







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