William Shakespeare

(26 April 1564 - 23 April 1616 / Warwickshire)

poet William Shakespeare
#2 on top 500 poets

William Shakespeare Quotes

  • ''Happy thou art not,
    For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get,
    And what thou hast, forget'st.''
    William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Duke, in Measure for Measure, act 3, sc. 1, l. 21-3. Depicting life as an unrewarding struggle in order to prepare Claudio to face death.
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  • ''The undeserver may sleep when the man of action is called on.''
    William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff Henry IV, Part 2, act 2, sc. 4, l. 376-7.
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  • ''Thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.''
    William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Feste, in Twelfth Night, act 5, sc. 1, l. 376-7. Marking the comeuppance afflicted on Malvolio; a "whirligig" is a spinning top.
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  • ''So wise so young, they say, do never live long.''
    William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Gloucester (later Richard III), in Richard III, act 3, sc. 1, l. 79 (1597). Referring to of Prince Edward, who is dead by act 4, sc. 3.
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  • ''We defy augury. There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.''
    William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Hamlet, in Hamlet, act 5, sc. 2, l. 165-8 (1604). Responding to Horatio's offer to forestall Hamlet's duel with Laertes, of which Hamlet has a premonition that all is not well.
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  • '''Tis mad idolatry
    To make the service greater than the god.''
    William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Hector, in Troilus and Cressida, act 2, sc. 2, l. 56-7. To offer more devotion than the "god" is worth seems mad to Hector, who is thinking of Helen.
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  • ''I am whipped and scourged with rods,
    Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear
    Of this vile politician Bolingbroke.''
    William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Hotspur, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 1, sc. 3, l. 239-41. Angry with king (formerly Henry Bolingbroke), who came to power with the help of Hotspur's family and now regards them as rebels; "pismires" means ants; "politician" means schemer.
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  • ''Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school.''
    William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Jack Cade, in Henry VI, Part 2, act 4, sc. 7, l. 32-4. The peasants accusations against Lord Saye.
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  • ''A good man's fortune may grow out at heels.''
    William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Kent, in King Lear, act 2, sc. 2, l. 157. "Out at heels" literally means threadbare, worn out. Kent is sitting in the stocks, so there's a bitter humor in his remark.
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  • ''The wild and wasteful ocean.''
    William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. King Henry, in Henry V, act 3, sc. 1, l. 14.
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Best Poem of William Shakespeare

All The World's A Stage

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. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in ...

Read the full of All The World's A Stage

Sonnet Li

Thus can my love excuse the slow offence
Of my dull bearer when from thee I speed:
From where thou art why should I haste me thence?
Till I return, of posting is no need.
O, what excuse will my poor beast then find,
When swift extremity can seem but slow?
Then should I spur, though mounted on the wind;
In winged speed no motion shall I know:
Then can no horse with my desire keep pace;

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