Commonly regarded as one of the greatest English writers who lived, William Shakespeare produced timeless pieces of writing that are still regarded as some of the greatest works of literature to this day. With our list of 142 Shakespeare quotes, sourced from his plays and poems, you’ll immerse your class in the genius of his words and hopefully inspire their love for English literature at the same time.
1. “To be, or not to be: that is the question.” – Hamlet
2. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” – As You Like It
3. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” – Romeo and Juliet
4. “The better part of Valour, is Discretion.” – Henry IV, Part 1
5. “Brevity is the soul of wit.” – Hamlet
6. “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
7. “The course of true love never did run smooth.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
8. “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” – Julius Caesar
9. “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” – The Tempest
10. “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” – Hamlet
11. “If music be the food of love, play on.” – Twelfth Night
12. “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” – The Merchant of Venice
13. “This above all: to thine own self be true.” – Hamlet
14. “Though she be but little, she is fierce.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
15. “I am one who loved not wisely but too well.” – Othello
16. “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” – Henry IV, Part 2
17. “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” – Julius Caesar
18. “Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.” – Romeo and Juliet
19. “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” – Macbeth
20. “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” – Twelfth Night
21. “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” – Measure for Measure
22. “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.” – Macbeth
23. “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” – The Tempest
24. “When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.” – King Lear
25. “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
26. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” – Hamlet
27. “Frailty, thy name is woman!” – Hamlet
28. “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” – Hamlet
29. “Out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow.” – Macbeth
30. “All that glisters is not gold.” – The Merchant of Venice
31. “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?” – The Merchant of Venice
32. “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” – Julius Caesar
33. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” – Macbeth
34 “I bear a charmed life.” – Macbeth
35. “A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!” – Richard III
36. “Nothing will come of nothing.” – King Lear
37. “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
38. “When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.” – Much Ado About Nothing
39. “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.” – The Merry Wives of Windsor
40. “But love is blind, and lovers cannot see.” – The Merchant of Venice
41. “In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.” – The Merchant of Venice
42. “I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?” – Much Ado About Nothing
43. “What light through yonder window breaks?” – Romeo and Juliet
44. “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York.” – Richard III
45. “Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have immortal longings in me.” – Antony and Cleopatra
46. “Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love.” – Hamlet
47. “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” – All’s Well That Ends Well
48. “Out of my sight! Thou dost infect my eyes.” – Richard III
49. “I am not bound to please thee with my answers.” – The Merchant of Venice
50. “When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.” – Unknown Origin
51. “I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, To die upon the hand I love so well.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
52. “Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.” – Henry VI, Part 3
53. “Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.” – Othello
54. “Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments.” – Sonnet 116
55. “Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.” – Twelfth Night
56. “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” – Richard II
57. “The wheel is come full circle.” – King Lear
58. “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” – Hamlet
59. “Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.” – Romeo and Juliet
60. “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.” – Macbeth
61. “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
62. “My only love sprung from my only hate.” – Romeo and Juliet
63. “Give me your pardon, sir. I’ve done you wrong. But pardon’t, as you are a gentleman.” – Hamlet
64. “I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.” – As You Like It
65. “With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” – The Merchant of Venice
66. “Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.” – Macbeth
67. “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!” – King Lear
68. “Now, gods, stand up for bastards!” – King Lear
69. “Have more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest.” – King Lear
70. “The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.” – Othello
71. “Desire of having is the sin of covetousness.” – Twelfth Night
72. “They do not love that do not show their love.” – Two Gentlemen of Verona
73. “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.” – Henry V
74. “How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” – The Merchant of Venice
75. “Tis neither here nor there.” – Othello
76. “I cannot tell what the dickens his name is.” – The Merry Wives of Windsor
77. “Expectation is the root of all heartache.” – Unconfirmed origin
78. “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” – Othello
79. “I would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety.” – Henry V
80. “He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man.” – Much Ado About Nothing
81. “The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.” – Hamlet
82. “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
83. “There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.” – Much Ado About Nothing
84. “Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.” – Titus Andronicus
85. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” – Hamlet
86. “Having nothing, nothing can he lose.” – Henry VI, Part 3
87. “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.” – Hamlet
88. “And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.” – King John
89. “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” – Henry VI, Part 2
90. “Come, come, you froward and unable worms!” – The Taming of the Shrew
91. “Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.” – Troilus and Cressida
92. “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
93. “Speak low, if you speak love.” – Much Ado About Nothing
94. “Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing.” – Troilus and Cressida
95. “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” – As You Like It
96. “What’s past is prologue.” – The Tempest
97. “Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.” – Twelfth Night
98. “Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?” – Henry IV, Part 2
99. “The world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.” – Richard III
100. “Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.” – Troilus and Cressida
101. “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” – Macbeth
102. “To be wise and love, exceeds man’s might.” – Troilus and Cressida
103. “Let life be short; else shame will be too long.” – Henry V
104. “Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” – Measure for Measure
105. “No legacy is so rich as honesty.” – All’s Well That Ends Well
106. “To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first.” – Henry VIII
107. “Such as we are made of, such we be.” – Twelfth Night
108. “Be great in act, as you have been in thought.” – King John
109. “I say there is no darkness but ignorance.” – Twelfth Night
110. “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” – Troilus and Cressida
111. “Where words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.” – Richard II
112. “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” – The Tempest
113. “My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break.” – The Taming of the Shrew
114. “Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.” – Measure for Measure
115. “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.” – Romeo and Juliet
116. “Now is the winter of our discontent.” – Richard III
117. “The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” – Hamlet
118. “O God! that one might read the book of fate.” – Henry IV, Part 2
119. “Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners.” – Othello
120. “Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.” – Hamlet
121. “I am fortune’s fool!” – Romeo and Juliet
122. “All’s well that ends well.” – All’s Well That Ends Well
123. “O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention!” – Henry V
124. “I have set my life upon a cast, and I will stand the hazard of the die.” – Richard III
125. “In black ink my love may still shine bright.” – Sonnet 65
126. “I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at.” – Othello
127. “If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honor.” – Henry V
128. “I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed!” – The Taming of the Shrew
129. “O, what men dare do! What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing what they do!” – Much Ado About Nothing
130. “But men are men; the best sometimes forget.” – Othello
131. “Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it promises.” – All’s Well That Ends Well
132. “These violent delights have violent ends.” – Romeo and Juliet
133. “Beware the ides of March.” – Julius Caesar
134. “Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.” – The Merchant of Venice
135. “There’s beggary in love that can be reckoned.” – Antony and Cleopatra
136. “How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?” – Othello
137. “Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.” – Romeo and Juliet
138. “Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.” – Julius Caesar
139. “I am a man more sinned against than sinning.” – King Lear
140. “I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.” – The Winter’s Tale
141. “Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, which we ascribe to heaven.” – All’s Well That Ends Well
142. “Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.” – Macbeth
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