Thirteen Shakespearean Quotes

Shakespeare on...

Life

"All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages."
--From As You Like It

Love

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other word would smell as sweet."
--From Romeo and Juliet

Pursuing a Woman

O, mistress mine, where are you roaming?

O, stay and hear; your true love's coming,

That can sing both high and low:

Trip no further, pretty sweeting;

Journeys end in lovers meeting,

Every wise man's son doth know.
What is love? 'tis not hereafter;

Present mirth hath present laughter;

What's to come is still unsure.

In delay there lies no plenty;

Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty;

Youth's a stuff will not endure.
--From Twelfth Night

Analyzing Love Letters

"Lo, here in one line is his name twice writ:

'Poor forlorn Proteus, passionate Proteus,
To the sweet Julia':--that I'll tear away;

And yet I will not, sith so prettily

He couples it to his complaining names:

Thus will I fold them one upon another:

Now kiss, embrace, contend, do what you will.
--The Two Gentlemen of Verona (I, ii, 23-24)

True Love

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,

and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind".

--A Midsummer Night's Dream

Greatness

"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great,

some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them".
--Twelfth Night

Hope

"The miserable have no other medicine but only hope".

--Measure for Measure

Word-Play

"I cannot tell what the dickens his name is".

--The Merry Wives of Windsor

Evil

"The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose".

--The Merchant of Venice

Anti-Semitism

"I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?
Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?"

--From The Merchant of Venice

Inspiration and Imagination

"O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend

The brightest heaven of invention,

A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,

And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!

Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,

Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,

Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire

Crouch for employment."

--Henry V, Prologue

Love that Lasts

Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken

--Sonnet 116

God

"God shall be my hope, my stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet"

--Henry VI, Act ii, Sc.3