Top 300 William Shakespeare Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!”

— William Shakespeare

102. “The robb’d that smiles, steals something from the thief; He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.”

— William Shakespeare

103. “Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.”

— William Shakespeare

104. “Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers.”

— William Shakespeare

105. “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

— William Shakespeare

106. “Brevity is the soul of wit.”

— William Shakespeare

107. “All things are ready, if our mind be so.”

— William Shakespeare

108. “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in 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! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”

— William Shakespeare

109. “To die, to sleep – To sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there’s the rub, For in this sleep of death what dreams may come...”

— William Shakespeare

110. “Be great in act, as you have been in thought.”

— William Shakespeare

111. “The breaking of so great a thing should make A greater crack: the round world Should have shook lions into civil streets, And citizens to their dens.”

— William Shakespeare

112. “Discretion is the better part of valor.”

— William Shakespeare

113. “Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”

— William Shakespeare

114. “The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.”

— William Shakespeare

115. “When he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun.”

— William Shakespeare

116. “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

— William Shakespeare

117. “True love cannot be found where it truly does not exist, nor can it be hidden where it truly does.”

— William Shakespeare

118. “I love thee, I love thee with a love that shall not die. Till the sun grows cold and the stars grow old.”

— William Shakespeare

119. “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead! In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger.”

— William Shakespeare

120. “O God, I could be bound in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space – were it not that I have bad dreams.”

— William Shakespeare

121. “Some rise by sin, and some by virtues fall.”

— William Shakespeare

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

— William Shakespeare

123. “If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone.”

— William Shakespeare

124. “Peace? I hate the word as I hate hell and all Montagues.”

— William Shakespeare

125. “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart. O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”

— William Shakespeare

126. “Beware the ides of March.”

— William Shakespeare

127. “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

— William Shakespeare

128. “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.”

— William Shakespeare

129. “People’s good deeds we write in water. The evil deeds are etched in brass.”

— William Shakespeare

130. “God shall be my hope, my stay, my guide and lantern to my feet.”

— William Shakespeare

131. “I am not bound to please thee with my answer.”

— William Shakespeare

132. “I say there is no darkness but ignorance.”

— William Shakespeare

133. “They do not love that do not show their love. The course of true love never did run smooth. Love is a familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but Love.”

— William Shakespeare

134. “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”

— William Shakespeare

135. “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”

— William Shakespeare

136. “One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.”

— William Shakespeare

137. “Bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible.”

— William Shakespeare

138. “I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.”

— William Shakespeare

139. “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will.”

— William Shakespeare

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

— William Shakespeare

141. “Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.”

— William Shakespeare

142. “I am in blood Stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

— William Shakespeare

143. “Many a true word hath been spoken in jest.”

— William Shakespeare

144. “Remember me.”

— William Shakespeare

145. “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport.”

— William Shakespeare

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

— William Shakespeare

147. “Men in rage strike those that wish them best.”

— William Shakespeare

148. “Thought is free.”

— William Shakespeare

149. “Oh, I am fortune’s fool!”

— William Shakespeare

150. “The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.”

— William Shakespeare