120+ Inspirational William Shakespeare Quotes [2024] Famous English Poet & Actor

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December 15th, 2021

William Shakespeare was a world-famous English Playwright, Poet, and Actor.

William Shakespeare is known as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. Shakespeare is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy in his lifetime.

Shakespeare's early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the greatest work produced in these genres. William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered being among the finest works in the English language.

We've put together an incredible collection of William Shakespeare quotes to read.

Here they are:

120+ Inspirational William Shakespeare Quotes [2024] Famous English Poet & Actor

List of Inspiring William Shakespeare Quotes

“What’s done can’t be undone.” - William Shakespeare

“Though she is little, she is fierce.” - William Shakespeare

“No legacy is so rich as honesty.” - William Shakespeare

“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” - William Shakespeare

“The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.” - William Shakespeare

“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” - William Shakespeare

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” - William Shakespeare

“What is past is prologue.” - William Shakespeare

“Love does not love which alters when it alteration finds.” - William Shakespeare

“How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath To say to me that thou art out of breath?” - William Shakespeare

“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.” - William Shakespeare

“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” - William Shakespeare

“How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?” - William Shakespeare

“Nothing can come of nothing.” - William Shakespeare

“How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” - William Shakespeare

“I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue.” - William Shakespeare

“Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak.” - William Shakespeare

“I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.” - William Shakespeare

“I can see that he’s not in your good books,’ said the messenger. No, and if he were I would burn my library.” - William Shakespeare

“God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.” - William Shakespeare

“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” - William Shakespeare

“He that loves to be flattered is worthy o’ the flatterer.” - William Shakespeare

“Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.” - William Shakespeare

“Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.” - William Shakespeare

“Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.” - William Shakespeare

“Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after.” - William Shakespeare

“Neither a borrower nor a lender is.” - William Shakespeare

“Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.” - William Shakespeare

“I bear a charmed life.” - William Shakespeare

“Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.” - William Shakespeare

“Talking isn’t doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well, and yet words are not deeds.” - William Shakespeare

“In time we hate that which we often fear.” - William Shakespeare

“Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.” - William Shakespeare

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” - William Shakespeare

“Boldness be my friend.” - William Shakespeare

“Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” - William Shakespeare

“Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.” - William Shakespeare

“Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.” - William Shakespeare

“When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.” - William Shakespeare

“Such as we are made of, such we be.” - William Shakespeare

“And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.” - William Shakespeare

“Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.” - William Shakespeare

“To be, or not to be: that is the question.” - William Shakespeare

“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.” - William Shakespeare

“All that glitters is not gold.” - William Shakespeare

“Words are easy, like the wind; faithful friends are hard to find.” - William Shakespeare

“The fault is not in our stars but in ourselves.” - William Shakespeare

“And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” - William Shakespeare

“Expectation is the root of all heartache.” - William Shakespeare

“I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.” - William Shakespeare

“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.” - 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.” - William Shakespeare

“My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break.” - William Shakespeare

“Brevity is the soul of wit.” - William Shakespeare

“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up o-er wrought heart and bids it breaks.” - William Shakespeare

“Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it.” - William Shakespeare

“One may smile, and smile, be a villain.” - William Shakespeare

“Conscience doth make cowards of us all.” - William Shakespeare

“Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.” - William Shakespeare

“O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” - William Shakespeare

“If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone.” - William Shakespeare

“Be great in act, as you have been in thought.” - William Shakespeare

“Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.” - William Shakespeare

“Maids want nothing but husbands, and when they have them, they want everything.” - William Shakespeare

“O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil.” - William Shakespeare

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” - William Shakespeare

“I will praise any man that will praise me.” - William Shakespeare

“My pride fell with my fortunes.” - William Shakespeare

“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.” - William Shakespeare

“Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?” - William Shakespeare

“I dote on his very absence.” - William Shakespeare

“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” - William Shakespeare

“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” - William Shakespeare

“Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.” - William Shakespeare

“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” - William Shakespeare

“There’s many a man has more hair than wit.” - William Shakespeare

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” - William Shakespeare

“All things are ready if our mind be so.” - William Shakespeare

“Many a true word hath been spoken in jest.” - William Shakespeare

“For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lillies that fester smell far worse than weeds.” - William Shakespeare

“The Devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape.” - William Shakespeare

“Thought is free.” - William Shakespeare

“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” - William Shakespeare

“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” - William Shakespeare

“Our bodies are our gardens to the which our wills are gardeners.” - William Shakespeare

“The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?” - William Shakespeare

“Men should be what they seem.” - William Shakespeare

“He jests at scars that never felt a wound.” - William Shakespeare

“I would not wish any companion in the world but you.” - William Shakespeare

“Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting.” - William Shakespeare

“Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love.” - William Shakespeare

“I am one who loved not wisely but too well.” - William Shakespeare

“A young woman in love always looks like patience on a monument smiling at grief.” - William Shakespeare

“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.” - William Shakespeare

“They do not love that do not show their love.” - William Shakespeare

“I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.” - William Shakespeare

“Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake.” - William Shakespeare

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.” - William Shakespeare

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” - William Shakespeare

“Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.” - William Shakespeare

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” - William Shakespeare

“Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly. Then your love would also change.” - William Shakespeare

“If music be the food of love, play on.” - William Shakespeare

“Love is too young to know what conscience is.” - William Shakespeare

“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” - William Shakespeare

“Don’t waste your love on somebody, who doesn’t value it.” - William Shakespeare

“And yet, to say the truth, reason, and love keep little company together nowadays.” - William Shakespeare

“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.” - William Shakespeare

“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.” - William Shakespeare

“I am not bound to please thee with my answer.” - William Shakespeare

“Go to your bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.” - William Shakespeare

“In black ink, my love may still shine bright.” - William Shakespeare

“Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks But bears it out even to the edge of doom.” - William Shakespeare

“See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. O, that I was a glove upon that hand that I might touch that cheek!” - William Shakespeare

“The course of true love never did run smoothly.” - William Shakespeare

“Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.” - William Shakespeare

“For which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?” - William Shakespeare

“Speak low, if you speak love.” - William Shakespeare

“Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.” - William Shakespeare

“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it is morrow.” - William Shakespeare

“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this and this gives life to thee.” - William Shakespeare

“For you, in my respect, are all the world.” - William Shakespeare

“Love is merely a madness.” - William Shakespeare

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Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.

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