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.
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The worst is not so long as we can say, “This is the worst”.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Worry, Accepting the Worst
Who dares do all that may become a man, and dares no more, he is a man indeed.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Man, Courage, Bravery
Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once.
—William Shakespeare
The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Ambition, Dreams
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.
—William Shakespeare
Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
—William Shakespeare
I have full cause of weeping, but this heart shall break into a hundred thousand flaws or ere I’ll weep.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Crying, Cries
Do you know what a man is? Are not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man?
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Man
Be great in act, as you have been in thought.
—William Shakespeare
This, too, shall pass.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Difficulty
I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go oer.
—William Shakespeare
A gentleman that loves to hear himself talk, will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Self-talk, Confidence
I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks.
—William Shakespeare
Blow, blow, thou winter wind, thou art not so unkind as man’s ingratitude.—Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, thou dost not bite so nigh, as benefits forgot.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Ingratitude
We rarely like the virtues we have not.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Virtue
The fault-finder—it is his nature’s plague to spy into abuses; and oft his jealousy shapes faults that are not.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Jealousy
Glendower:I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Hotspur:Why, so can I, or so can any man;But will they come when you do call for them?
—William Shakespeare
Trust not him that hath once broken faith; he who betrayed thee once, will betray thee again.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Confidence, Caution
Whereof whats past is prologue, what to comeIn yours and my discharge.
—William Shakespeare
Our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Retirement
This was the noblest Roman of them all.
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar.
He only in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, “This was a man.”
—William Shakespeare
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Time Management, Value of Time, Carpe-diem, Time
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Nature
Hear the meaning within the word.
—William Shakespeare
If thou art rich, thou art poor; for, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows, thou bearest thy heavy riches but a journey, and death unloads thee.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Wealth, Riches
What’s past is prologue.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Past, Reflection
Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Women
The jury, passing on the prisoner’s life, may have in the sworn twelve a thief or two guiltier than him they try.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Justice
Oh! that you could turn your eyes towards the napes of your necks, and make but an interior survey of your good selves.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Self-Discovery
Silence is the perfectest herald of joy. I were but little happy if I could say how much.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Silence, Happiness
We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Future, The Future, Vision, Potential
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Kindness, Goodness, Helping, One Step at a Time
Thus we play the fool with the time and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us.
—William Shakespeare
Thoughts are but dreams till their effects be tried.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Thought, Dreams
The path is smooth that leadeth on to danger.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Risk, Danger
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Hypocrisy, Perspective, Evil, Argument
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Love, Art, Romance
I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Happiness
If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work: but when they seldom come, they wished for come, and nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Perspective, One liners, Holidays, Pleasure
A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.
—William Shakespeare
Topics: Youth, Time
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