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
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Dorothy L. Sayers English Novelist, Playwright
Dodie Smith British Novelist
Graham Greene British Novelist
Richard Brinsley Sheridan Irish-born British Playwright
Christopher Marlowe English Playwright
Lawrence Durrell British Biographer
Edna St. Vincent Millay American Poet
William Congreve English Dramatist
Colley Cibber English Playwright
Pietro Aretino Italian Author