Shakespeare Fools Quotes & Sayings

Fools are not mad folks. — William Shakespeare

When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools. — William Shakespeare

More fools know Jack Fool than Jack Fool knows. — William Shakespeare

I will keep where there is wit stirring, and leave the faction of fools. — William Shakespeare

What, are there masques? Hear you me, Jessica:
Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum
And the vile squealing of the wry-neck'd fife,
Clamber not you up to the casements then,
Nor thrust your head into the public street
To gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces,
But stop my house's ears, I mean my casements:
Let not the sound of shallow foppery enter
— William Shakespeare

I must have liberty
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,
To blow on whom I please, for so fools have. — William Shakespeare

I go, Andronicus: and for thy hand
Look by and by to have thy sons with thee.
[Aside]
Their heads, I mean. O, how this villany
Doth fat me with the very thoughts of it!
Let fools do good, and fair men call for grace. 1340
Aaron will have his soul black like his face. — William Shakespeare

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. — William Shakespeare

This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,
when we are sick in fortune,
often the surfeit
of our own behavior,
we make guilty of our
disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as
if we were villains by necessity; fools by
heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,
liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of
planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,
by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion
of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish
disposition to the charge of a star. — William Shakespeare

CELIA: For since the little wit that fools have was silenced, the little foolery that wise men have makes great a show. — William Shakespeare

BEROWNE: What time o' day?
ROSALINE: The hour that fools should ask. — William Shakespeare

Well, God give them wisdom that have it; and those that are fools, let them use their talents. — William Shakespeare

Wishes were ever fools — William Shakespeare

Werewolves and silver bullets!" Shakespeare coughed a quick laugh and shook his head. "Lord, what fools these mortals be! — Michael Scott

Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men and hang up them. — William Shakespeare

A knavish speech sleeps in a fool's ear. — William Shakespeare

Live loath'd and long,
Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,
Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,
You fools of fortune, trencher friends, time flies
Cap and knee slaves, vapors, and minute jacks. — William Shakespeare

Thus hath the candle sing'd the moth. O these deliberate fools! — William Shakespeare

Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand,
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover's fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be! — William Shakespeare

How many fond fools serve mad jealousy! — William Shakespeare

Wishers were ever fools. — William Shakespeare

Milk-livered man,
That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;
Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning
Thine honor from thy suffering; [that not know'st
Fools do those villains pity who are punished
Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum?
France spreads his banners in our noiseless land,
With plumed helm thy state begins to threat,
Whilst thou, a moral fool, sits still and cries
'Alack, why does he so?'] — William Shakespeare

Put on what weary negligence you please,
You and your fellows; I'll have it come to question:
If he dislike it, let him to our sister,
Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one,
Not to be over-ruled. Idle old man,
That still would manage those authorities
That he hath given away! Now, by my life,
Old fools are babes again; and must be used
With cheques as flatteries,
when they are seen abused.
Remember what I tell you. — William Shakespeare

I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a barren rascal. I saw him put down the other day with an 80 ordinary fool that has no more brain than a stone. Look you now, he's out of his guard already; unless you laugh and minister occasion to him, he is gagged. I protest I take these wise men, that crow so at these set kind of fools, no better than the fools' zanies. — William Shakespeare

Fools are as like husbands as pilchards are to herrings, the husband's the bigger. — William Shakespeare

Travelers never did lie, though fools at home condemn them. — William Shakespeare

Thrust your head into the public street, to gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces. — William Shakespeare

The world was to Shakespeare a great stage of fools on which he was utterly bewildered. His pregnant observations of life are not coordinated into any philosophy. — George Bernard Shaw

Let not thy sword skip one:
Pity not honour'd age for his white beard;
He is an usurer: strike me the counterfeit matron;
It is her habit only that is honest,
Herself's a bawd: let not the virgin's cheek
Make soft thy trenchant sword; for those milk-paps,
That through the window-bars bore at men's eyes,
Are not within the leaf of pity writ,
But set them down horrible traitors: spare not the babe,
Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy;
Think it a bastard, whom the oracle
Hath doubtfully pronounced thy throat shall cut,
And mince it sans remorse: swear against objects;
Put armour on thine ears and on thine eyes;
Whose proof, nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes,
Nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding,
Shall pierce a jot. There's gold to pay soldiers:
Make large confusion; and, thy fury spent,
Confounded be thyself! Speak not, be gone. — William Shakespeare

Travellers ne'er did lie,
Though fools at home condemn 'em.

-Antonio — William Shakespeare

IAGO: She that was ever fair and never proud,
Had tongue at will and yet was never loud,
Never lack'd gold and yet went never gay,
Fled from her wish and yet said 'Now I may,'
She that being anger'd, her revenge being nigh,
Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly,
She that in wisdom never was so frail
To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail;
She that could think and ne'er disclose her mind,
See suitors following and not look behind,
She was a wight, if ever such wight were,
DESDEMONA: To do what?
IAGO: To suckle fools and chronicle small beer. — William Shakespeare

And I'll be sworn 'tis true. Travelers ne'er did lie,
Though fools at home condemn 'em.
---Antonio
(Act III, scene 3, lines 26-27.) — William Shakespeare

- 'twould almost damn those ears; The author's meaning is this: - That some people are thought wise whilst they keep silence; who, when they open their mouths, are such stupid praters, that the hearers cannot help calling them fools, and so incur the judgment denounced in the Gospel. - THEOBALD. — William Shakespeare

The loyalty, well held to fools, does make Our faith mere folly. — William Shakespeare

This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen. — William Shakespeare

Thou know'st the first time that we smell the air we wawl and cry. When we are born we cry, that we are come to this great state of fools. — William Shakespeare

We make ourselves fools to disport ourselves And spend our flatteries to drink those men Upon whose age we void it up again With poisonous spite and envy. — William Shakespeare

Lord, what fools these mortals be! — William Shakespeare

DON PEDRO
Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of Signior Benedick.
BEATRICE
Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile; and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one: marry, once before he won it of me with false dice, therefore your grace may well say I have lost it.
DON PEDRO
You have put him down, lady, you have put him down.
BEATRICE
So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I should prove the mother of fools. — William Shakespeare

Oh what fools we mortals are. — William Shakespeare

To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! — William Shakespeare

Here comes a pair of very strange beast, which in all tongues are called "fools". — Bill Shakespeare

When we are born, we cry that we are to come to this great stage of fools,' I quoted from Shakespeare's King Lear. — Brittainy C. Cherry

And every day past is just another step for fools on the way to their deaths. — William Shakespeare

The more pity, that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly. — William Shakespeare