Top 300 William Shakespeare Quotes (2026 Update)
Page 5 of 7

201. “Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.”

— William Shakespeare

202. “How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath To say to me that thou art out of breath?”

— William Shakespeare

203. “Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied, And vice sometime by action dignified.”

— William Shakespeare

204. “I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.”

— William Shakespeare

205. “Dispute not with her: she is lunatic.”

— William Shakespeare

206. “Give me that man that is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him in my heart’s core, in my heart of heart, as I do thee.”

— William Shakespeare

207. “When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.”

— William Shakespeare

208. “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”

— William Shakespeare

209. “For which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?”

— William Shakespeare

210. “There’s small choice in rotten apples.”

— William Shakespeare

211. “We burn daylight.”

— William Shakespeare

212. “I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue.”

— William Shakespeare

213. “When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.”

— William Shakespeare

214. “O sleep, O gentle sleep, Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frightened thee, 1710. That thou no more will weigh my eyelids down, And steep my senses in forgetfulness?”

— William Shakespeare

215. “I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano, A stage where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one.”

— William Shakespeare

216. “So we grew together like to a double cherry, seeming parted, but yet an union in partition, two lovely berries molded on one stem.”

— William Shakespeare

217. “And sleep, that sometime shuts up sorrow’s eye, Steal me awhile from mine own company.”

— William Shakespeare

218. “You speak an infinite deal of nothing.”

— William Shakespeare

219. “You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, except my life.”

— William Shakespeare

220. “Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.”

— William Shakespeare

221. “The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?”

— William Shakespeare

222. “And therefore, – since I cannot prove a lover, To entertain these fair well-spoken days, – I am determined to prove a villain, And hate the idle pleasures of these days.”

— William Shakespeare

223. “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.”

— William Shakespeare

224. “I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, To die upon the hand I love so well.”

— William Shakespeare

225. “I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes – and moreover, I will go with thee to thy uncle’s.”

— William Shakespeare

226. “Is it not strange that sheep’s guts could hail souls out of men’s bodies?”

— William Shakespeare

227. “Death, that hath suck’d the honey of thy breath hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.”

— William Shakespeare

228. “Up and down, up and down I will lead them up and down I am feared in field in town Goblin, lead them up and down.”

— William Shakespeare

229. “Thus I die. Thus, thus, thus. Now I am dead, Now I am fled, My soul is in the sky. Tongue, lose thy light. Moon take thy flight. Now die, die, die, die.”

— William Shakespeare

230. “When you depart from me sorrow abides and happiness takes his leave.”

— William Shakespeare

231. “Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell. Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, Yet Grace must still look so.”

— William Shakespeare

232. “It is not, nor it cannot, come to good, But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.”

— William Shakespeare

233. “The weight of this sad time we must obey, Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. The oldest hath borne most: we that are young Shall never see so much, nor live so long.”

— William Shakespeare

234. “So wise so young, they say, do never live long.”

— William Shakespeare

235. “Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.”

— William Shakespeare

236. “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”

— William Shakespeare

237. “Thou art a very ragged Wart.”

— William Shakespeare

238. “The small amount of foolery wise men have makes a great show.”

— William Shakespeare

239. “I wish you all the joy that you can wish.”

— William Shakespeare

240. “He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself.”

— William Shakespeare

241. “No sooner met but they looked; no sooner looked but they loved; no sooner loved but they sighed; no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason; no sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy; and in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage...”

— William Shakespeare

242. “Yet but three come one more. Two of both kinds make up four. Ere she comes curst and sad. Cupid is a knavish lad. Thus to make poor females mad.”

— William Shakespeare

243. “What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living? Beatrice: Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick?”

— William Shakespeare

244. “Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart, or in the head?”

— William Shakespeare

245. “And to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour. BEATRICE No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born.”

— William Shakespeare

246. “From women’s eyes this doctrine I derive: They sparkle still the right Promethean fire; They are the books, the arts, the academes, That show, contain and nourish all the world.”

— William Shakespeare

247. “A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry; But were we burdened with light weight of pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain.”

— William Shakespeare

248. “No matter where; of comfort no man speak: Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.”

— William Shakespeare

249. “Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t.”

— William Shakespeare

250. “If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking and you beat love down.”

— William Shakespeare