William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" or simply "the Bard". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, 3 long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Quotes

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
The attempt and not the deed
Confounds us.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks!
Out, damned spot! out, I say!
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, "Hold, enough!"
A little more than kin, and less than kind.
Frailty, thy name is woman!

Men And Women
He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.
Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
But to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honoured in the breach than the observance.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
Leave her to heaven
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her.
Every man has business and desire,
Such as it is.

Desire
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Dreams, Philosophy
Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.

Sanity
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!
The devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape.

‹ Prev

Next ›