Timeless Inspiration: A Curated Collection of Shakespeare's Most Inspirational Quotes

"This above all; to thine own self be true."

- William Shakespeare

"Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting."

- William Shakespeare

"Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow."

- William Shakespeare

"Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs."

- William Shakespeare

"Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds."

- William Shakespeare

"Boldness be my friend."

- William Shakespeare

"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."

- William Shakespeare

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."

- William Shakespeare

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."

- William Shakespeare

"No legacy is so rich as honesty."

- William Shakespeare

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once."

- Billy the Kid

"For you, in my respect, are all the world."

- William Shakespeare

"So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this and this gives life to thee."

- William Shakespeare

"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain."

- Venus and Adonis

"Speak low, if you speak love."

- William Shakespeare

"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."

- William Shakespeare

"If music be the food of love, play on."

- William Shakespeare

"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."

- William Shakespeare

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."

- William Shakespeare

"The fault...is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

- William Shakespeare

"For which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?"

- William Shakespeare

"But love is blind, and lovers cannot see."

- William Shakespeare

"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."

- William Shakespeare

"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt."

- William Shakespeare

"Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."

- William Shakespeare

"To thine own self be true"

- William Shakespeare

"To be, or not to be: that is the question."

- William Shakespeare

"Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt."

- William Shakespeare

"This above all - to thine own self be true"

- William Shakespeare

"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."

- William Shakespeare

"We know what we are, but know not what we may be."

- Shakespeare

"If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone."

- William Shakespeare

"Be great in act, as you have been in thought."

- William Shakespeare

"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt."

- William Shakespeare

"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them"

- William Shakespeare

"The fault…is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

- William Shakespeare

"See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. O, that I were a glove upon that hand that I might touch that cheek!"

- William Shakespeare

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so"

- William Shakespeare

"Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom."

- William Shakespeare

"Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them."

- William Shakespeare

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them"

- William Shakespeare

"In black ink my love may still shine bright."

- William Shakespeare

"I would not wish any companion in the world but you."

- William Shakespeare

"Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love."

- William Shakespeare

"I am one who loved not wisely but too well."

- William Shakespeare

"A young woman in love always looks like patience on a monument smiling at grief."

- William Shakespeare

"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

"I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest."

- Much Ado About Nothing

"Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake."

- William Shakespeare

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate."

- William Shakespeare

"Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love."

- William Shakespeare

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."

- William Shakespeare

"Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly. Then your love would also change."

- William Shakespeare

"Love is too young to know what conscience is."

- William Shakespeare

"Go to your bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know."

- William Shakespeare

"And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays."

- William Shakespeare

"Don't waste your love on somebody, who doesn't value it."

- William Shakespeare

"Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night."

- William Shakespeare

"...we know what we are, but know not what we may be."

- William Shakespeare

"Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds."

- William Shakespeare

"Love is merely a madness."

- William Shakespeare

"Ambition should be made of sterner stuff."

- William Shakespeare

"I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?"

- William Shakespeare

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."

- William Shakespeare

"Conscience doth make cowards of us all."

- William Shakespeare

"Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour As thou are in desire?"

- William Shakespeare

"Better three hours too soon than a minute late."

- William Shakespeare

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."

- William Shakespeare

"Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven."

- William Shakespeare

"Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself."

- William Shakespeare

"Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind."

- William Shakespeare

"Thought is free."

- William Shakespeare

"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

- William Shakespeare

"Suit the action to the word, the word to the action."

- William Shakespeare

"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late."

- William Shakespeare

"Let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me"

- William Shakespeare

"Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head."

- William Shakespeare

"What is past is prologue."

- William Shakespeare

"'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after."

- William Shakespeare

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be."

- William Shakespeare

"I bear a charmed life."

- William Shakespeare

"Talking isn't doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds."

- William Shakespeare

"In time we hate that which we often fear."

- William Shakespeare

"Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise."

- William Shakespeare

"Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

- William Shakespeare

"Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast."

- William Shakespeare

"Pleasure and action make the hours seem short."

- William Shakespeare

"When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain."

- William Shakespeare

"And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse."

- William Shakespeare

"Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving."

- William Shakespeare

"All that glisters is not gold."

- William Shakespeare

"Words are easy, like the wind; faithful friends are hard to find."

- William Shakespeare

"And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything."

- William Shakespeare

"Expectation is the root of all heartache."

- William Shakespeare

"My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break."

- William Shakespeare

"Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up o-er wrought heart and bids it break."

- William Shakespeare

"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it."

- William Shakespeare

"One may smile, and smile, be a villain."

- William Shakespeare

"Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me."

- William Shakespeare

"Et tu, Brute?"

- Julius Caesar

"O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on."

- William Shakespeare

"All things are ready, if our mind be so."

- William Shakespeare

"Many a true word hath been spoken in jest."

- William Shakespeare

"For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; lillies that fester smell far worse than weeds."

- William Shakespeare

"The Devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape."

- William Shakespeare

"April hath put a spirit of youth in everything."

- William Shakespeare

"Summer's lease hath all too short a date."

- William Shakespeare

"Our bodies are our gardens to the which our wills are gardeners."

- William Shakespeare

"The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?"

- William Shakespeare

"Men should be what they seem."

- William Shakespeare

"I am not bound to please thee with my answer."

- William Shakespeare

"Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge."

- William Shakespeare

"...it is not enough to speak, but to speak true."

- William Shakespeare

"Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course."

- William Shakespeare

"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."

- William Shakespeare

"Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge."

- William Shakespeare

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures."

- William Shakespeare

"How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world."

- William Shakespeare

"What's done can't be undone."

- William Shakespeare

"Brevity is the soul of wit."

- William Shakespeare

"Such as we are made of, such we be."

- William Shakespeare

"The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose."

- William Shakespeare

"Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall."

- William Shakespeare

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

- William Shakespeare

"There is no darkness but ignorance."

- William Shakespeare

"If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?"

- William Shakespeare

"Listen to many, speak to a few."

- William Shakespeare

"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions."

- William Shakespeare

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

- William Shakespeare

"All that glitters is not gold."

- William Shakespeare

"All the world’s a stage"

- William Shakespeare

"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me."

- William Shakespeare

"O, it is excellent To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant."

- William Shakespeare

"What’s past is prologue."

- William Shakespeare

"Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown."

- William Shakespeare

"How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes!"

- William Shakespeare

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on"

- William Shakespeare

"Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice."

- William Shakespeare

"How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?"

- William Shakespeare

"Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man."

- William Shakespeare

"Maids want nothing but husbands, and when they have them, they want everything."

- William Shakespeare

"O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil."

- William Shakespeare

"Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

- William Shakespeare

"I will praise any man that will praise me."

- William Shakespeare

"My pride fell with my fortunes."

- William Shakespeare

"Better a witty fool than a foolish wit."

- William Shakespeare

"Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?"

- William Shakespeare

"I dote on his very absence."

- William Shakespeare

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

- William Shakespeare

"If I be waspish, best beware of my sting"

- William Shakespeare

"As, I confess, it is my nature's plague To spy into abuses, and oft my jealousy Shapes faults that are not."

- William Shakespeare

"There's many a man has more hair than wit."

- William Shakespeare

"I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me."

- William Shakespeare

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind"

- William Shakespeare

"God has given you one face, and you make yourself another."

- William Shakespeare

"The spring, the summer, The childing autumn, angry winter, change Their wonted liveries, and the mazèd world By their increase now knows not which is which."

- William Shakespeare

"How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath to say to me that thou art out of breath?"

- William Shakespeare

"I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue."

- William Shakespeare

"I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me."

- William Shakespeare

"Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows."

- William Shakespeare

"He that loves to be flattered is worthy o' the flatterer."

- William Shakespeare

"If music be the food of love, play on"

- William Shakespeare

"Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?"

- William Shakespeare

"What’s in a name? A rose by any name would smell as sweet"

- William Shakespeare

"Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak."

- William Shakespeare

"But come what may, I do adore thee so that danger shall seem sport, and I will go"

- William Shakespeare

"Nothing can come of nothing."

- William Shakespeare

"Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne'er loved them."

- William Shakespeare

"Though she be but little, she is fierce."

- William Shakespeare

"The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones."

- William Shakespeare

"It is a wise father that knows his own child."

- William Shakespeare

"Farewell, fair cruelty."

- William Shakespeare

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."

- William Shakespeare

"'Tis better to bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of."

- William Shakespeare

"The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief."

- William Shakespeare

"Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains."

- William Shakespeare

"There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face."

- William Shakespeare

"I like not fair terms and a villain's mind."

- William Shakespeare

"Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones."

- William Shakespeare

"Good company, good wine, good welcome can make good people"

- William Shakespeare

"Were kisses all the joys in bed, One woman would another wed."

- William Shakespeare

"Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy—rich, not gaudy, For the apparel oft proclaims the man."

- William Shakespeare

"A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"

- William Shakespeare

"Diseased Nature oftentimes breaks forth In strange eruptions."

- William Shakespeare

"The world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch"

- William Shakespeare

"'I can see that he's not in your good books,' said the messenger. 'No, and if he were I would burn my library.'"

- William Shakespeare

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."

"They do not love that do not show their love."

"The course of true love never did run smooth."

"Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better."

"He jests at scars that never felt a wound."

"Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful."