60 Life Lessons from William Shakespeare Quotes

If music be the food of love, play on.Twelfth Night (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1965), Act I, Scene I, Page 35

The empty vessel makes the greatest sound.Henry V (1599), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act IV, Scene IV, Page 94

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.
(Also known as: It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.)Julius Caesar (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act I, Scene II, Page 11

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.Hamlet (1603), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act III, Scene II, Page 32

The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.Julius Caesar (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act III, Scene II, Page 61

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.Hamlet (1603), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act III, Scene III, Page 85

A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued, and neither party loser.Henry IV, Part 2, (Signet Classic, ed. 2002), Act IV, Scene II, Page 86

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.Julius Caesar (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act II, Scene II, Page 39

The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief.Othello (1622), (Signet Classic, ed. 1963), Act I, Scene III, Page 58

In time we hate that which we often fear.Antony and Cleopatra (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act I, Scene III, Page 15

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.Macbeth (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act I, Scene VII, Page 23

To do a great right, do a little wrong.The Merchant of Venice (1600), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act IV, Scene I, Page 79

To be, or not to be, that is the question.Hamlet (1603), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act III, Scene I, Page 63

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.Measure for Measure (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act I, Scene IV, Page 18

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.Troilus and Cressida (1609), (Signet Classic, ed. 2002), Act III, Scene III, Page 79

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.Hamlet (1603), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act III, Scene I, Page 66

Ignorance is the curse of God, knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.Henry VI, Part 2 (1623), (Oxford University Press, ed. 2003), Act IV, Scene VII, Page 254

We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.The Tempest (1611), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act IV, Scene I, Page 70

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.Twelfth Night (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1965), Act III, Scene IV, Page 96

When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions.Hamlet (1603), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act IV, Scene V, Page 105

Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.Othello (1622), (Signet Classic, ed. 1963), Act II, Scene III, Page 89

If money go before, all ways do lie open.The Merry Wives of Windsor (1602), (Penguin, ed. 1973), Act II, Scene II, Page 91

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.Hamlet (1603), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act IV, Scene V, Page 104

It is a wise father that knows his own child.The Merchant of Venice (1600), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act II, Scene II, Page 25

There is no darkness, but ignorance.Twelfth Night (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1965), Act IV, Scene II, Page 115

The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.Hamlet (1603), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act II, Scene II, Page 49

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.Hamlet (1603), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act II, Scene II, Page 48

Thy overflow of good converts to bad.Richard II (1597), (Signet Classic, ed. 1999), Act V, Scene III, Page 98

Reputation is an idle and most false imposition: oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.Othello (1622), (Signet Classic, ed. 1963), Act II, Scene III, Page 86

Men are April when they woo, December when they wed; maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.As You Like It (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1987), Act IV, Scene I, Page 112

Desire of having is the sin of covetousness.Twelfth Night (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1965), Act V, Scene I, Page 123

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!King Lear (1608), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act I, Scene IV, Page 34

The miserable have no other medicine, but only hope.Measure for Measure (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act III, Scene I, Page 45

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.Macbeth (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act V, Scene V, Page 90

Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.King John (1623), (Oxford University Press, ed. 1998), Act III, Scene IV, Page 200

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.As You Like It (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1987), Act II, Scene VII, Page 77

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious-dear than life.Troilus and Cressida (1609), (Signet Classic, ed. 2002), Act V, Scene III, Page 126

Let life be short; else shame will be too long.Henry V (1599), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act IV, Scene V, Page 96

And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.As You Like It (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1987), Act II, Scene I, Page 59

The course of true love never did run smooth.A Midsummer Night's Dream (1600), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act I, Scene I, Page 8

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.All's Well That Ends Well (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 2005), Act I, Scene I, 6

Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs.Romeo and Juliet (1597), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act I, Scene I, Page 12

Love sought is good; but given unsought is better.Twelfth Night (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1965), Act III, Scene I, Page 89

Love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds.The Sonnets (1609), (Signet Classic, ed. 1999), Sonnet CXVI, Page 116

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.A Midsummer Night's Dream (1600), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act I, Scene I, Page 11

Love is too young to know what conscience is.The Sonnets (1609), (Signet Classic, ed. 1999), Sonnet CLI, Page 151

All that glitters is not gold.The Merchant of Venice (1600), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act II, Scene VII, Page 40

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice.
(Modern text: Listen to many people, but talk to few.)Hamlet (1603), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act I, Scene III, Page 21

Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.The Merry Wives of Windsor (1602), (Penguin, ed. 1973), Act II, Scene II, Page 95

Brevity is the soul of wit.Hamlet (1603), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act II, Scene II, Page 43

Hell is empty and all the devils are here.The Tempest (1611), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act I, Scene II, Page 15

Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.Twelfth Night (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1965), Act I, Scene V, Page 48

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.As You Like It (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1987), Act V, Scene I, Page 123

When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.King Lear (1608), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act IV, Scene VI, 117

Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.Twelfth Night (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1965), Act I, Scene V, Page 47

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.Measure for Measure (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act II, Scene I, Page 20

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.Measure for Measure (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act III, Scene I, Page 52

Virtue itself ‘scapes not calumnious strokes.Hamlet (1603), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act I, Scene III, Page 20

This above all; to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.Hamlet (1603), (Signet Classic, ed. 1998), Act I, Scene III, Page 22

No legacy is so rich as honesty.All's Well That Ends Well (1623), (Signet Classic, ed. 2005), Act III, Scene V, Page 64

When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.Jewish proverb

The love of heaven makes one heavenly.Sir Philip Sidney ('The Old Arcadia,' The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia)

Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.Derived from A Midsummer Night's Dream on p. 269, Aphorisms from Shakespeare (1812)

The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift away.David Viscott, Finding Your Strength in Difficult Times: A Book of Meditations (1993)