William Shakespeare Quotes, Quotations, and Sayings

2,311 Famous Quotes by William Shakespeare
“I do desire we may be better strangers.”
Desire Quotes
Source: As You Like It (Orlando at III, ii)
“Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing?”
Desire Quotes
Source: As You Like It (Rosalind at IV, i)
“Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay. Good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.”
Desire Quotes
Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bottom at IV, i)
“Had doting Priam checked his son's desire, Troy had been bright with fame, and not with fire.”
Desire Quotes
Source: The Rape of Lucrece (l. 1,490)
“Our revels are now 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-capped tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all of which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Is rounded with a sleep.”
Visions Quotes
Source: The Tempest (Prospero at IV, i)
“A little fire is quickly trodden out; Which, being suffer'd, rivers cannot quench.”
Fire Quotes
Source: King Henry the Sixth, Part III (Clarence at IV, viii)
“The fire i' th' flint Shows not till it be struck; our gentle flame Provokes itself and like the current flies Each bound it chafes.”
Fire Quotes
Source: The Life of Timon of Athens (Poet at I, i)
“Fire that's closest kept burns most of all.”
Fire Quotes
Source: The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Lucetta at I, ii)
“The grass stoops not, she treads on it so light; . . .”
Footsteps Quotes
Source: Venus and Adonis (l. 1,028)
“She has a housewife's hand; but that's no matter: I say she never did invent this letter; This is a man's invention and his hand.”
Invention Quotes
Source: As You Like It (Rosalind at IV, iii)
“That is the way to lay the city flat, To bring the roof to the foundation, And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges, In heaps and piles of ruin.”
Cities Quotes
Source: Coriolanus (Cominius at III, i)
“What is the city but the people?”
Cities Quotes
Source: Coriolanus (Sicinius at III, i)
“Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school.”
Students Quotes
Source: As You Like It (Jaques at II, vii)
“From his cradle He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one, Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading; Lofty and sour to them that loved him not, But to those men that sought him, sweet as summer.”
Students Quotes
Source: The Life of King Henry the Eighth (Griffith at IV, ii)
“You undergo too strict a paradox, Striving to make an ugly deed look fair.”
Paradoxes Quotes
Source: The Life of Timon of Athens (First Senator at III, v)
“These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i' th' alehouse.”
Paradoxes Quotes
Source: Othello the Moor of Venice (Desdemona at II, i)
“So we grew together, Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet an union in partition-- Two lovely berries moulded on one stem; So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.”
Unity Quotes
Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Helena at III, ii)
“Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.”
Wishes Quotes
Source: King Henry the Fourth, Part II (King Henry at IV, v)
“Of all complexions the culled sovereignty Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek, Where several worthies make one dignity, Where nothing wants that want itself doth seek.”
Wishes Quotes
Source: Love's Labor's Lost (Berowne at IV, iii)
“Master, go on, and I will follow thee To the last gasp with truth and loyalty.”
Service Quotes
Source: As You Like It (Adam at II, iii)
“I am an ass indeed; you may prove it by my long ears. I have served him from the hour of my nativity to this instant, and have nothing at his hands for my service but blows. When I am cold, he heats me with beating; when I am warm, he cools me with beating.”
Service Quotes
Source: The Comedy of Errors (Dromio of Ephesus at IV, iv)
“O Cromwell, Cromwell, Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, he would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies.”
Service Quotes
Source: The Life of King Henry the Eighth (Wolsey at IV, i)
“My heart is ever at your service, my lord.”
Service Quotes
Source: The Life of Timon of Athens (Alcibiades at I, ii)
“The swallow follows not summer more willing than we your lordship.”
Service Quotes
Source: The Life of Timon of Athens (Second Friend at III, vi)
“We cannot all be masters, nor all masters Cannot be truly followed.”
Service Quotes
Source: Othello the Moor of Venice (Iago at I, i)
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