Famous Lines from the Plays and Sonnets by Shakespeare
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. –Hamlet There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. -Hamlet “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”. –Sonnet 18 Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. -Hamlet When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions! -Hamlet To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and, by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub. For in this sleep of death what dreams may come…. -Hamlet Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t. -Hamlet Sweets to the sweet. -Hamlet God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another. -Hamlet Conscience doth make cowards of us all. -Hamlet One may smile, and smile, and be a villain. -Hamlet The lady doth protest too much, methinks. -Hamlet This above all: to think own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. -Hamlet From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered- We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England now-a-bed Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day. -Henry V Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs. –Romeo and Juliet Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow. -Romeo and Juliet By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. -Macbeth Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak. -As You Like It I do love nothing in the world so well as you – is not that strange? -Much Ado About Nothing Lord, what fools these mortals be! -A Midsummer Night’s Dream Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever,- One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never. -Much Ado About Nothing Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me. -Much Ado About Nothing All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exists and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. -As You Like It The course of true love never did run smooth. -A Midsummer Night’s Dream 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. -Julius Caesar Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus; and we petty men Walk under his huge legs, and peep about To find ourselves dishonourable graves. -Julius Caesar 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. -Julius Caesar Et tu, Brute? -Julius Caesar O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-ey’d monster, which doth mock The meat it feeds on. -Othello All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told: Many a man his life hath sold But my outside to behold: Gilded tombs do worms enfold. -The Merchant of Venice The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. -The Merchant of Venice Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow. -Romeo and Juliet Better three hours too soon than a minute too late. -The Merry Wives of Windsor Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast. -Romeo and Juliet But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. -Romeo and Juliet To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. 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. -Macbeth What’s done cannot be undone. -Macbeth Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble! -Macbeth Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires. -Macbeth The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. -As You Like It Hell is empty and all the devils are here. -The Tempest Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them -Twelfth Night Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. -All’s Well That Ends Well If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. -Twelfth Night The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers. -King Henry VI, Part Two Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. -The Tempest What’s past is prologue. -The Tempest Me, poor man, my library Was dukedom large enough. -The Tempest Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it promises. -All’s Well That Ends Well *Learn more about William ShakespeareRead more about Shakespeare: Browse the complete list of Shakespeare’s sonnets, with opening lines and themes for each of the 154 poems.
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Link will appear as Hanson, Marilee. "Shakespeare Quotes" https://englishhistory.net/shakespeare/quotes/, April 19, 2015