Quotes by William Shakespeare

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world.

Had he not resembled My father as he slept I had donet! Macbeth

How now! Heres the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Lady Macbeth

Unsex me here and fill me from crown to toe full of direst cruelty That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose. Macbeth

Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter; dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty, beyond waht can be valued, rich or rare; no less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor; as much as child eer loved, or father found; a love that makes breath poor, and speech unable; beyond all manner of so much I love you.

I profess myself an enemy to all other joys, which the most precious square of sense possesses, and find I am alone felicitate in your dear highness love.

If eer again I meet him beard to beard, hes mine or I am his.

Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

So our virtuesLie in the interpretation of the time:And power, unto itself most commendable,Hath not a tomb so evident as a chairTo extol what it hath done.One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail.

I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thyeyes—and moreover, I will go with thee to thy uncle’s.

What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy.Who buys a minutes mirth to wail a week?Or sells eternity to get a toy?For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy?Or what fond beggar, but to touch the crown,Would with the sceptre straight be strucken down?

Those that much covet are with gain so fond,For what they have not, that which they possessThey scatter and unloose it from their bond,And so, by hoping more, they have but less;Or, gaining more, the profit of excessIs but to surfeit, and such griefs sustain,That they prove bankrupt in this poor-rich gain.

Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,To the last syllable of recorded time;And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death.- Macbeth Act V, Scene V

The quality of mercy is not straind,It droppeth as the gentle rain from heavenUpon the place beneath: it is twice blest;It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomesThe throned monarch better than his crown;His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,The attribute to awe and majesty,Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;But mercy is above this sceptred sway;It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,It is an attribute to God himself;And earthly power doth then show likest GodsWhen mercy seasons justice.

The quality of mercy is not strained;It droppeth as the gentle rain from heavenUpon the place beneath. It is twice blessed;It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomesThe throned monarch better than his crown; * * * * *It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;It is an attribute to God himself.

She will outstrip all praise and make it halt behind her.

O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! - Cassio (Act II, Scene iii)

    Oh, devil, devil!If that the earth could teem with woman’s tears,Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.Out of my sight!

I think the devil will not have me damned, lest the oil thats in me should set hell on fire.