Quotes by William Shakespeare

Pray you now, forget and forgive.
"King Lear", Act 4 scene 7

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us.
"King Lear", Act 5 scene 3

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,--
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
"King Richard II", Act 2 scene 1

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York,
And all the clouds that loured upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments,
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamped, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them,--
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun.
"King Richard III", Act 1 scene 1

An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told.
"King Richard III", Act 4 scene 4

True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings;
Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.
"King Richard III", Act 5 scene 2

A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
"King Richard III", Act 5 scene 4

A man in all the world's new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrases in his brain.
"Love's Labour's Lost", Act 1 scene 1

He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.
"Love's Labour's Lost", Act 5 scene 1

They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.
"Love's Labour's Lost", Act 5 scene 1

A jest's prosperity lies in the ear
Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
Of him that makes it.
"Love's Labour's Lost", Act 5 scene 2

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence.
"Macbeth", Act 1 scene 3

Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness.
"Macbeth", Act 1 scene 5

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
"Macbeth", Act 2 scene 1

The attempt and not the deed
Confounds us.
"Macbeth", Act 2 scene 2

By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks!
"Macbeth", Act 4 scene 1

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
"Macbeth", Act 4 scene 1

Out, damned spot! out, I say!
"Macbeth", Act 5 scene 1

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", Act 5 scene 5

Lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, "Hold, enough!"
"Macbeth", Act 5 scene 8