Quotes & Sayings About Life William Shakespeare

Either to die the death or to abjure
For ever the society of men.
Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;
Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun,
For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,
To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,
Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness. — William Shakespeare

No, by my soul, I never in my life
Did hear a challenge urged more modestly,
Unless a brother should a brother dare
To gentle exercise and proof of arms. — William Shakespeare

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world. — William Shakespeare

What's more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time,
As calling home our exiled friends abroad
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny,
Producing forth the cruel ministers
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life; this, and what needful else
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace
We will perform in measure, time, and place. — William Shakespeare

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife ...
O, I am fortune's fool! ...
Then I defy you, stars. — William Shakespeare

'Tis the soldier's life to have their balmy slumbers waked with strife. — William Shakespeare

No, take more! What may be sworn by, both divine and human, Seal what I end withal! This double worship, Where [one] part does disdain with cause, the other Insult without all reason; where gentry, title, wisdom, Cannot conclude but by the yea and no Of general ignorance - it must omit Real necessities, and give way the while To unstable slightness. Purpose so barr'd, it follows Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore beseech you - You that will be less fearful than discreet; That love the fundamental part of state More than you doubt the change on't; that prefer A noble life before a long, and wish To jump a body with a dangerous physic That's sure of death without it - at once pluck out The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick The sweet which is their poison. Your dishonor Mangles true judgment, and bereaves the state Of that integrity which should become't; Not having the power to do the good it would, For th' ill which doth control't. — William Shakespeare

I am a close friend of Robert Loggia. And I just love how, with actors, there's the screen persona. Here is Robert, known for his portrayal of many characters, including gangsters. But in real life, he is elegant and erudite. He sits in the garden reading the sonnets of William Shakespeare. — Luanne Rice

These signs have marked me extraordinary, And all the courses of my life do show I am not in the roll of common men. — William Shakespeare

Life's an Unceartian Voyage — William Shakespeare

To fail to experience gratitude when walking through the corridors of the Metropolitan Museum, when listening to the music of Bach or Beethoven, when exercising our freedom to speak, or ... to give, or withhold, our assent, is to fail to recognize how much we have received from the great wellsprings of human talent and concern that gave us Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, our parents, our friends. We need a rebirth of gratitude for those who have cared for us, living and, mostly, dead. The high moments of our way of life are their gifts to us. We must remember them in our thoughts and in our prayers; and in our deeds. — William F. Buckley Jr.

No more light answers. Let our officers
Have note what we purpose. I shall break
The cause of our expedience to the Queen
And get her leave to part. For not alone
The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,
Do strongly speak to us, but the letters too
Of many our contriving friends in Rome
Petition us at home. Sextus Pompeius
Hath given the dare to Caesar and commands
The empire of the sea. Our slippery people,
Whose love is never linked to the deserver
Till his deserts are past, begin to throw
Pompey the Great and all his dignities
Upon his son, who - high in name and power,
Higher than both in blood and life - stands up
For the main soldier; whose quality, going on,
The sides o' th' world may danger. Much is breeding
Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life
And not a serpent's poison. — William Shakespeare

Though now this grained face of mine be hid
In sap-consuming winter's drizzled snow,
And all the conduits of my blood froze up,
Yet hath my night of life some memory,
My wasting lamps some fading glimmer left,
My dull deaf ears a little use to hear. — William Shakespeare

Care is no cure, but rather corrosive, For things that are not to be remedied. — William Shakespeare

Life... is a paradise to what we fear of death. — William Shakespeare

I dreamt my lady came and found me dead
...
And breathed such life with kisses in my lips
That I revived and was an emperor. — William Shakespeare

To sue to live, I find I seek to die;
And, seeking death, find life. — William Shakespeare

So far be distant; and good night, sweet friend: thy love ne'er alter, till they sweet life end — William Shakespeare

Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep, - the innocent sleep;
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast. — William Shakespeare

Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest, and despair most fits. — William Shakespeare

Because of this it has been possible for the play to be read, as it so often has been since the Romantic period, as a credo, an apologia pro vita sua (a justification of his own life), on the part of Shakespeare the dramatist. — William Shakespeare

My life, my joy, my food, my ail the world! — William Shakespeare

Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound & query signifying nothing — William Shakespeare

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. — William Shakespeare

There's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year. — William Shakespeare

Life is but a dream, within a dream. — William Shakespeare

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud,if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues. — William Shakespeare

LEONATO
Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.
BEATRICE
Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a pierce of valiant dust? to make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? No, uncle, I'll none: Adam's sons are my brethren; and, truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred. — William Shakespeare

World, world, O world! But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee/ Life would not yield to age. — William Shakespeare

I am not yet of Percy's mind, the Hotspur of the North; he that kills me some six or seven dozen of Scots as a breakfast, washes his hands, and says to his wife, 'Fie upon this quiet life! I want work. — William Shakespeare

If Time have any wrinkle graven there; If any, be a satire to decay, And make time's spoils despised every where. Give my love fame faster than Time wastes life, So thou prevent'st his scythe and crooked knife. — William Shakespeare

Life is but a walking shadow — William Shakespeare

But here must end the story of my life,
And happy were I in my timely death
Could all my travels warrant me they live. — William Shakespeare

And his unkindness may defeat my life, But never taint my love. — William Shakespeare

I love a ballad in print o' life, for then we are sure they are true. — William Shakespeare

You take my life when you do take the means whereby I live — William Shakespeare

And a man's life's no more than to say "One." — William Shakespeare

This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so, it is a chance which does redeem all sorrows that ever I have felt. — William Shakespeare

I could be well content To entertain the lag-end of my life With quiet hours. — William Shakespeare

My noble father,
I do perceive here a divided duty.
To you I am bound for life and education.
My life and education both do learn me
How to respect you. You are the lord of my duty,
I am hitherto your daughter. But here's my husband,
And so much duty as my mother showed
To you, preferring you before her father,
So much I challenge that I may profess
Due to the Moor my lord. — William Shakespeare

And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself
Yea, all which it inherit - shall dissolve,
And like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vexed.
Bear with my weakness. My old brain is troubled.
Be not disturbed with my infirmity.
If you be pleased, retire into my cell
And there repose. A turn or two I'll walk
To still my beating mind. — William Shakespeare

Let life be short, else shame will be too long. — William Shakespeare

I have almost forgotten the taste of fears: The time has been, my senses would have cool'd to hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir as life were in't: I have supt full with horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, cannot once start me. — William Shakespeare

I bear a charmed life, which must not yield
To one of woman born. — William Shakespeare

Death makes no conquest of this conqueror: For now he lives in fame, though not in life. — William Shakespeare

I long to hear the story of your life, which must captivate the ear strangely. — William Shakespeare

Out of this nettle - danger - we pluck this flower - safety. — William Shakespeare

In scorn of nature, art gave lifeless life. — William Shakespeare

The time of life is short;
To spend that shortness basely were too long. — William Shakespeare

Life is a story told by an idiot, full of noise and emotion, but without any meaning. [A — William Shakespeare

Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life. — William Shakespeare

Life is better life past fearing death,
Than that which lives to fear. — William Shakespeare

A flock of blessings light upon thy back — William Shakespeare

FRIAR LAURENCE: ... Your part in her you could not keep from death,
But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.
The most you sought was her promotion;
For 'twas your heaven she should be advanced:
And weep ye now, seeing she is advanced
Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?
O, in this love, you love your child so ill,
That you run mad, seeing that she is well:
She's not well married that lives married long;
But she's best married that dies married young. — William Shakespeare

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. — William Shakespeare

And he goes through life, his mouth open, and his mind closed. — William Shakespeare

O gentlemen, the time of life is short!
To spend that shortness basely were too long,
If life did ride upon a dial's point,
Still ending at the arrival of an hour. — William Shakespeare

Let every man be master of his time. — William Shakespeare

Mine honor is my life; both grow in one.
Take honor from me, and my life is done. — William Shakespeare

No more; unless the next word that thou speak'st
Have some malignant power upon my life:
If so, I pray thee breathe it in mine ear,
As ending anthem of my endless dolour. — William Shakespeare

On a day - alack the day! -
Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom passing fair
Playing in the wanton air — William Shakespeare

Beauty lives with kindness. — William Shakespeare

By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death will seize the doctor too. — William Shakespeare

My dear dear lord,
The purest treasure mortal times afford
Is spotless reputation: that away,
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest
Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.
Mine honour is my life; both grow in one:
Take honour from me, and my life is done:
Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try;
In that I live and for that will I die. — William Shakespeare

I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but, for my single self,
I had as lief not be as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself. — William Shakespeare

My brain I'll prove the female to my soul; my soul the father: and these two beget a generation of still-breeding thoughts, and these same thoughts people this little world. — William Shakespeare

I take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo. — William Shakespeare

I can bear a charmed life — William Shakespeare

Master, go on, and I will follow thee
To the last gasp with truth and loyalty. — William Shakespeare

Her father lov'd me; oft invited me;
Still question'd me the story of my life,
From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have pass'd. — William Shakespeare

Wooing, wedding, and repenting is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace: the first suit is hot and hasty like a Scotch jig
and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly modest, as a measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes repentance and with his bad legs falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave. — William Shakespeare

Life isn't but a feather floating in the wind. One second it's in your grasp, next second, it's floating high, wondering what is to come. — William Shakespeare

Lay aside life-harming heaviness, And entertain a cheerful disposition. — William Shakespeare

He is not great who is not greatly good. — William Shakespeare

Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged process of my death
Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father's life
Now wears his crown. — William Shakespeare

My desolation does begin to make a better life. — William Shakespeare

There is a devilish mercy in the judge, if you'll implore it, that will free your life, but fetter you till death. — William Shakespeare

Life has two rules: #1 Never quit #2 Always remember rule # 1.
Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none — William Shakespeare

Therein, ye gods, ye make the weak most strong;
Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat.
Nor stony wall, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit:
But life being weary of these worldly bars
Never lacks power to dismiss itself. — William Shakespeare

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

Keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key. — William Shakespeare

Life's but a walking shadow — William Shakespeare

Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breath
What thou hast said to me. — William Shakespeare

Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
And recks not his own read. — 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

Oh, injurious love, that respites me a life, whose very comfort is still a dying horror — William Shakespeare

To die is to be a counterfeit, for he is but the counterfeit of a man who hath not the life of a man; but to counterfeit dying when a man thereby liveth is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed. — William Shakespeare

The sands are number'd that make up my life. — William Shakespeare

There is no sure foundation set on blood, No certain life achieved by others' death. — William Shakespeare

I say, without characters, fame lives long. — William Shakespeare

Minutes, hours, days, months, and years,
Pass'd over to the end they were created,
Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave.
Ah, what a life were this! — William Shakespeare

Ah, what a sign it is of evil life, Where death's approach is seen so terrible! — William Shakespeare

Nothing in his life became him like leaving it. — William Shakespeare

O, this life Is nobler than attending for a check, Richer than doing nothing for a robe, Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk: Such pain the cap of him that makes him fine Yet keeps his book uncrossed. — William Shakespeare

Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence, But never tax'd for speech. — William Shakespeare

O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life's as cheap as beast's. — William Shakespeare

Life is an intresting journey where the beginning is known,way is a puzzle and the end is unknown — William Shakespeare

There's nothing serious in mortality;
All is but toys; renown, and grace, is dead;
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of. — William Shakespeare

life is like theater — William Shakespeare

The death of each days life — William Shakespeare