Inspirational Quotes by William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

Inspirational Quotations by William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an English poet and playwright. The “Bard of Avon” is widely regarded as the best English language writer ever, unrivaled in widespread and critical acclaim. Shakespeare’s greatness lies not only in the impressive range and the virtuosity of his literary output but also in the power he offered readers to uncover themselves in the mirror of his literature.

Not many particulars of Shakespeare’s life are documented, except for a few scanty records that fix his birth, marriage, the baptism of his three children, and his brilliant success as a playwright and an actor. There is much speculation about many aspects of Shakespeare’s life, including the authorship and chronology of his works, his physical appearance, and his religious affiliation. All this ambiguity about Shakespeare’s life and creative development has factored into his legend as an inborn artist rather than an intentional dramatist. Innumerable literary scholars and historians have dedicated their careers not only to throw light on the mystery of Shakespeare, but also to investigate for probable alternative authors to his works—the education, life, and literary output of Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere, and other authors of that age appear a better fit to explain Shakespeare’s genius.

Shakespeare produced most of his famous works, viz., Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and others, between the ages of 25 and 49. His authorship consists of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays, divided equally among tragedies, comedies, histories, and romance, explore the subtlety of behavior and the psychology of the human experience.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by William Shakespeare

Those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country, as the behavior of the country is most mockable at the court.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Manners

He that wants money, means, and content, is without three good friends.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Money

Since I was man,
Such sheets of fire, such bursts of torrid thunder
Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
Remember to have heard.
—William Shakespeare

There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Understanding

Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought, And with a green and yellow melancholy She sat like patience on a monument, Smiling at grief
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Grief

Great men should drink with harness on their throats.
—William Shakespeare

Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Perfection, Perfectionism

I had rather be a toad, and live upon the vapor of a dungeon than keep a corner in the thing I love for others uses.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Defects, Jealousy

The morning steals upon the night, melting the darkness.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Morning

Why should honor outlive honestly?
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Honor

A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Youth, Time

To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Misfortunes, Fortune

Some are born great; some achieve greatness; and some have greatness thrust upon them.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Greatness

We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Dreams

Have you not a moist eye, a dry hand, a yellow cheek, a white beard, a decreasing leg, an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken, your wind short, your chin double, your wit single, and every part about you blasted with antiquity?
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Age

Men, at some time, are masters of their fates.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Confidence, Self-reliance, Success, Master

He wants wit who wants resolved will.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Will

Wishers were ever fools
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Wishes, One liners

Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Despair

I will chide no breather in the world but myself, against whom I know most faults.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Charity, Complaining

Lord Bacon told Sir Edward Coke when he was boasting, The less you speak of your greatness, the more shall I think of it.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Humility, Modesty

Trust not him that hath once broken faith; he who betrayed thee once, will betray thee again.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Caution, Confidence

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Luck, Fortune

The teeming Autumn big with rich increase, bearing the wanton burden of the prime like widowed wombs after their lords decease.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Autumn, Seasons

Because I will not do the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust none; I will live a bachelor.
—William Shakespeare

The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Valor

When the moon shone we did not see the candle: so doth the greater glory dim the less.—A substitute shines lightly as a king until a king be by, and then his state empties itself, as doth an inland brook into the main of waters.
—William Shakespeare

I will praise any man that will praise me.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Flattery

Your old virginity is like one of our French withered pears: it looks ill, it eats dryly.
—William Shakespeare

Now, good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both!
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Diet, Appetite, Health