450 Famous Shakespeare Quotes That Will Inspire You

Liputan6.com, Jakarta Shakespeare’s words have stood the test of time. His plays and poems are full of wisdom about life, love, and human nature. Here are 450 of the Bard’s most famous and inspiring quotes:

Love Quotes

1. “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.”

2. “The course of true love never did run smooth.”

3. “Love is blind, and lovers cannot see.”

4. “I do love nothing in the world so well as you.”

5. “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep.”

6. “Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.”

7. “Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs.”

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

9. “Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.”

10. “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

Life Quotes

11. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”

12. “To be, or not to be, that is the question.”

13. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

14. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

15. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

16. “This above all: to thine own self be true.”

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

18. “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage.”

19. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

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

21. “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

22. “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”

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

24. “Brevity is the soul of wit.”

25. “There is no darkness but ignorance.”

26. “The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.”

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

28. “Have more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest.”

29. “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.”

30. “Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”

Courage Quotes

31. “Screw your courage to the sticking-place.”

32. “I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none.”

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

34. “Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear.”

35. “Be not afraid of greatness.”

36. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

37. “Courage mounteth with occasion.”

38. “The valiant never taste of death but once.”

39. “To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first.”

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

Ambition Quotes

41. “Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.”

42. “The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.”

43. “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition.”

44. “Fling away ambition: By that sin fell the angels.”

45. “Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”

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

47. “To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first.”

48. “We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we’ll not fail.”

49. “Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.”

50. “Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

51. “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day.”

52. “The time of life is short; to spend that shortness basely were too long.”

53. “Time is very slow for those who wait, very fast for those who are scared.”

54. “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”

55. “Time travels in divers paces with divers persons.”

56. “The whirligig of time brings in his revenges.”

57. “There’s a time for all things.”

58. “Time is the nurse and breeder of all good.”

59. “Make use of time, let not advantage slip.”

60. “Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides.”

Friendship Quotes

61. “A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.”

62. “I count myself in nothing else so happy as in a soul remembering my good friends.”

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

64. “Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.”

65. “I would not wish any companion in the world but you.”

66. “Friendship is constant in all other things save in the office and affairs of love.”

67. “A friend should bear his friend’s infirmities.”

68. “The band that seems to tie their friendship together will be the very strangler of their amity.”

69. “To me, fair friend, you never can be old, for as you were when first your eye I eyed, such seems your beauty still.”

70. “I desire you in friendship, and I will one way or other make you amends.”

Power Quotes

71. “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

72. “O, it is excellent to have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.”

73. “The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.”

74. “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”

75. “The prince of darkness is a gentleman.”

76. “The wheel is come full circle: I am here.”

77. “How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in’t!”

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

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

80. “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

81. “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

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

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

84. “The earth has music for those who listen.”

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

86. “The strawberry grows underneath the nettle, and wholesome berries thrive and ripen best neighbored by fruit of baser quality.”

87. “I am in blood stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

88. “How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!”

89. “The sun itself sees not till heaven clears.”

90. “The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.”

Death Quotes

91. “To die, to sleep – to sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there’s the rub.”

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

93. “Death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”

94. “Golden lads and girls all must, as chimney-sweepers, come to dust.”

95. “He that dies pays all debts.”

96. “The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.”

97. “Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it.”

98. “All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity.”

99. “We owe God a death.”

100. “Death lies on her like an untimely frost upon the sweetest flower of all the field.”

Hope Quotes

101. “The miserable have no other medicine but only hope.”

102. “True hope is swift, and flies with swallow’s wings.”

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

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

105. “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”

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

107. “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”

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

109. “When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.”

110. “There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.”

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

112. “Trifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ.”

113. “Jealousy is the jaundice of the soul.”

114. “How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes!”

115. “The venom clamors of a jealous woman poisons more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth.”

116. “Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.”

117. “Self-harming jealousy! Fiend-like fury!”

118. “Jealous souls will not be answered, but they will conjure up false fears.”

119. “The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.”

120. “O, what damned minutes tells he o’er who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!”

Revenge Quotes

121. “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”

122. “The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.”

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

124. “Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand, blood and revenge are hammering in my head.”

125. “I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.”

126. “If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge.”

127. “Had all his hairs been lives, my great revenge had stomach for them all.”

128. “Revenge is the naked idol of the worship of a semi-barbarous age.”

129. “To seek revenge is but a waste of time.”

130. “Revenge is a kind of wild justice.”

Fate Quotes

131. “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”

132. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”

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

134. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

135. “What’s done cannot be undone.”

136. “Our wills and fates do so contrary run that our devices still are overthrown.”

137. “The wheel is come full circle: I am here.”

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

139. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

140. “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.”

141. “Et tu, Brute?”

142. “The trust I have is in mine innocence, and therefore am I bold and resolute.”

143. “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.”

144. “I am one, my liege, whom the vile blows and buffets of the world have so incensed that I am reckless what I do to spite the world.”

145. “The robb’d that smiles, steals something from the thief.”

146. “There’s daggers in men’s smiles.”

147. “I must be cruel, only to be kind.”

148. “False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”

149. “The worst is not, so long as we can say, ‘This is the worst.’”

150. “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”

Madness Quotes

151. “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.”

152. “O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!”

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

154. “That way madness lies.”

155. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

156. “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact.”

157. “I am not mad; I would to heaven I were!”

158. “O, that way madness lies; let me shun that.”

159. “His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.”

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

Guilt Quotes

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

162. “Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.”

163. “My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, and every tongue brings in a several tale, and every tale condemns me for a villain.”

164. “Guiltiness will speak, though tongues were out of use.”

165. “The guilt being great, the fear doth still exceed.”

166. “How is’t with me, when every noise appals me?”

167. “I’ll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still.”

168. “Infected minds to their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.”

169. “Foul deeds will rise, though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.”

170. “Guilt is so full of fear that it betrays itself.”

171. “The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.”

172. “Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.”

173. “The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.”

174. “I pardon him, as God shall pardon me.”

175. “Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.”

176. “To err is human, to forgive, divine.”

177. “The power of pardon is the noblest thing.”

178. “Let us not burden our remembrance with a heaviness that’s gone.”

179. “Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.”

180. “The more we know, the better we forgive.”

Appearance Quotes

181. “All that glitters is not gold.”

182. “The apparel oft proclaims the man.”

183. “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.”

184. “God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.”

185. “To seem the stranger lies my lot, my life among the strangers.”

186. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.”

187. “The world is still deceived with ornament.”

188. “So may the outward shows be least themselves.”

189. “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.”

190. “O, what may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!”

Truth Quotes

191. “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”

192. “No legacy is so rich as honesty.”

193. “Truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long.”

194. “If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then to me.”

195. “Truth is truth to the end of reckoning.”

196. “I do not know the man I should avoid so soon as that spare Cassius.”

197. “The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness.”

198. “Though I am not naturally honest, I am sometimes so by chance.”

199. “Honesty is the best policy. If I lose mine honor, I lose myself.”

200. “There’s daggers in men’s smiles.”

201. “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

202. “There is no darkness but ignorance.”

203. “Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.”

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

205. “The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.”

206. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

207. “Knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.”

208. “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

209. “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.”

210. “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”

Change Quotes

211. “To change, or not to change, that is the question.”

212. “The wheel is come full circle: I am here.”

213. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

214. “The fashion wears out more apparel than the man.”

215. “Time is the old justice that examines all such offenders, and let Time try.”

216. “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”

217. “The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.”

218. “O, how this spring of love resembleth the uncertain glory of an April day!”

219. “The earth has music for those who listen.”

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

Patience Quotes

221. “How poor are they that have not patience!”

222. “Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”

223. “Patience is a virtue.”

224. “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”

225. “The ripest fruit first falls.”

226. “Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod.”

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

228. “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”

229. “Patience and sorrow strove who should express her goodliest.”

230. “O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! Keep me in temper; I would not be mad!”

231. “The strength of a man consists in finding out the way in which God is going, and going in that way too.”

232. “My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure.”

233. “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

234. “The stronger thou art, the more it behooves thee to be merciful.”

235. “O, it is excellent to have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.”

236. “The valiant never taste of death but once.”

237. “I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none.”

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

239. “To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first.”

240. “The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.”

Weakness Quotes

241. “The weakest goes to the wall.”

242. “I am a man more sinned against than sinning.”

243. “The worst is not, so long as we can say, ‘This is the worst.’”

244. “Frailty, thy name is woman!”

245. “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!”

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

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

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

249. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

250. “We have seen better days.”

Success Quotes

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

252. “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”

253. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

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

255. “To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first.”

256. “Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.”

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

258. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

259. “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”

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

261. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

262. “I am a man more sinned against than sinning.”

263. “The worst is not, so long as we can say, ‘This is the worst.’”

264. “We have seen better days.”

265. “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!”

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

267. “The ripest fruit first falls.”

268. “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”

269. “The wheel is come full circle: I am here.”

270. “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”

Happiness Quotes

271. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

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

273. “The earth has music for those who listen.”

274. “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

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

276. “This above all: to thine own self be true.”

277. “The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.”

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

279. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

280. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”

Sadness Quotes

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

282. “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”

283. “The miserable have no other medicine but only hope.”

284. “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!”

285. “I am a man more sinned against than sinning.”

286. “The worst is not, so long as we can say, ‘This is the worst.’”

287. “We have seen better days.”

288. “How poor are they that have not patience!”

289. “Parting is such sweet sorrow.”

290. “To weep is to make less the depth of grief.”

291. “Anger is like a full-hot horse, who being allowed his way, self-mettle tires him.”

292. “In time we hate that which we often fear.”

293. “O, that way madness lies; let me shun that.”

294. “The fire i’ the flint shows not till it be struck.”

295. “_”Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.”

296. “Beware the fury of a patient man.”

297. “I will be deaf to pleading and excuses.”

298. “The smallest worm will turn being trodden on.”

299. “O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!”

300. “Tempt not a desperate man.”

Fear Quotes

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

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

303. “There is no terror in your threats, for I am armed so strong in honesty that they pass by me as the idle wind.”

304. “The valiant never taste of death but once.”

305. “I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none.”

306. “Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear.”

307. “In time we hate that which we often fear.”

308. “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.”

309. “The worst is not, so long as we can say, ‘This is the worst.’”

310. “To be, or not to be, that is the question.”

Pride Quotes

311. “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

312. “He’s proud, and yet his pride becomes him.”

313. “I do hate a proud man, as I hate the engendering of toads.”

314. “Pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle.”

315. “Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.”

316. “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.”

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

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

319. “O, what may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!”

320. “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

321. “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

322. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

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

324. “The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.”

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

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

327. “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”

328. “There is no darkness but ignorance.”

329. “The earth has music for those who listen.”

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

Greed Quotes

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

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

333. “Foul cankering rust the hidden treasure frets, but gold that’s put to use more gold begets.”

334. “Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.”

335. “All that glisters is not gold.”

336. “The world is still deceived with ornament.”

337. “So are you to my thoughts as food to life, or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground.”

338. “Enough, no more; ‘Tis not so sweet now as it was before.”

339. “Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”

340. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

Generosity Quotes

341. “The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.”

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

343. “No legacy is so rich as honesty.”

344. “The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.”

345. “Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.”

346. “They do not love that do not show their love.”

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

348. “I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks.”

349. “Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.”

350. “The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.”

351. “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”

352. “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

353. “Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.”

354. “I am constant as the northern star.”

355. “The loyalty well held to fools does make our faith mere folly.”

356. “I would not wish any companion in the world but you.”

357. “Friendship is constant in all other things save in the office and affairs of love.”

358. “A friend should bear his friend’s infirmities.”

359. “The band that seems to tie their friendship together will be the very strangler of their amity.”

360. “I desire you in friendship, and I will one way or other make you amends.”

Betrayal Quotes

361. “Et tu, Brute?”

362. “The trust I have is in mine innocence, and therefore am I bold and resolute.”

363. “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.”

364. “I am one, my liege, whom the vile blows and buffets of the world have so incensed that I am reckless what I do to spite the world.”

365. “There’s daggers in men’s smiles.”

366. “I must be cruel, only to be kind.”

367. “False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”

368. “The worst is not, so long as we can say, ‘This is the worst.’”

369. “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”

370. “The robb’d that smiles, steals something from the thief.”

Wisdom Quotes

371. “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

372. “There is no darkness but ignorance.”

373. “Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.”

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

375. “The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.”

376. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

377. “Knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.”

378. “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

379. “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.”

380. “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”

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

382. “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

383. “Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.”

384. “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.”

385. “A fool’s paradise is a wise man’s hell.”

386. “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

387. “Wise men ne’er sit and wail their loss, but cheerily seek how to redress their harms.”

388. “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact.”

389. “Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun; it shines everywhere.”

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

Youth Quotes

391. “Youth is full of sport, age’s breath is short; youth is nimble, age is lame.”

392. “I would there were no age between sixteen and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest.”

393. “O, how this spring of love resembleth the uncertain glory of an April day!”

394. “Young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.”

395. “The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.”

396. “Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.”

397. “Crabbed age and youth cannot live together.”

398. “Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care.”

399. “We that are true lovers run into strange capers.”

400. “Golden lads and girls all must, as chimney-sweepers, come to dust.”

Age Quotes

401. “With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”

402. “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.”

403. “The oldest sins the newest kind of ways.”

404. “Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth and delves the parallels in beauty’s brow.”

405. “Last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”

406. “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”

407. “The wheel is come full circle: I am here.”

408. “We have seen better days.”

409. “O, how this spring of love resembleth the uncertain glory of an April day!”

410. “Time is the old justice that examines all such offenders, and let Time try.”

411. “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance.”

412. “Remember thee! Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat in this distracted globe.”

413. “What’s past is prologue.”

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

415. “Let us not burden our remembrance with a heaviness that’s gone.”

416. “O, call back yesterday, bid time return.”

417. “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past.”

418. “I cannot but remember such things were, that were most precious to me.”

419. “Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear.”

420. “The memory be green, and that it us befitted to bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe.”

Dreams Quotes

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

422. “To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub.”

423. “I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was.”

424. “In that sleep of death what dreams may come.”

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

426. “The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.”

427. “I talk of dreams, which are the children of an idle brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy.”

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

429. “Dreams are toys.”

430. “True, I talk of dreams, which are the children of an idle brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy.”

Fate Quotes

431. “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”

432. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”

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

434. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

435. “What’s done cannot be undone.”

436. “Our wills and fates do so contrary run that our devices still are overthrown.”

437. “The wheel is come full circle: I am here.”

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

439. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

440. “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.”

441. “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

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

443. “The earth has music for those who listen.”

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

445. “How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!”

446. “The sun itself sees not till heaven clears.”

447. “The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.”

448. “I am in blood stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

449. “The strawberry grows underneath the nettle, and wholesome berries thrive and ripen best neighbored by fruit of baser quality.”

450. “Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.”

Shakespeare’s words continue to resonate centuries later. His insights into human nature, love, ambition, and the human condition remain as relevant today as when they were first written. Whether for inspiration, reflection, or pure enjoyment, these 450 quotes showcase the Bard’s timeless wisdom and mastery of language.