William Shakespeare Quotes & Biography

William Shakespeare, an English playwright, and poet who lived from 1564 to 1616 were thought to be the best dramatist in many parts of the world. As far as I know, his plays have been performed more often than those of any other dramatist. 

William Shakespeare’s quotes are very famous among today’s generation. His quotes are not only included in English courses but also well-covered in many schools. These quotes will surely refresh your mind and give you the motivation that you want for doing something in your life. 

• “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” — William Shakespeare

• “He jests at scars that never felt a wound.” — William Shakespeare

• “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” — 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

• “I would not wish any companion in the world but you.” — William Shakespeare

• “Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” — William Shakespeare

• “Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.” — William Shakespeare

• “Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting.” — William Shakespeare

• “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” — 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

• “How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?” “Nothing can come of nothing.” — William Shakespeare

• “A young woman in love always looks like patience on a monument smiling at grief.” — 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

• “They do not love that do not show their love.” — 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.” — William Shakespeare

• “Though she be but little, she is fierce.” — William Shakespeare

• “Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake.” — William Shakespeare

• “No legacy is so rich as honesty.” — William Shakespeare

• “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.” — William Shakespeare

• “This above all; to thine own self be true.” — William Shakespeare

• “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” — William Shakespeare

• “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” — William Shakespeare

• “The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief.” — William Shakespeare

• “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” — William Shakespeare

• “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” — William Shakespeare

• “What is past is prologue.” — William Shakespeare

• “Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.” — William Shakespeare

• “Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.” — William Shakespeare

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• “Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.” — 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

• “This not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after.” — William Shakespeare

• “Neither a borrower nor a lender is.” — William Shakespeare

• “If music be the food of love, play on.” — William Shakespeare

• “Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.” — William Shakespeare

• “Love is too young to know what conscience is.” — William Shakespeare

• “I bear a charmed life.” — William Shakespeare

• “Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.” — William Shakespeare

• “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” — 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

• “Don’t waste your love on somebody, who doesn’t value it.” — William Shakespeare

• “Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.” — William Shakespeare

• “With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” — William Shakespeare

• “Boldness be my friend.” — William Shakespeare

• “And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.” — William Shakespeare

• “Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” — William Shakespeare

• “Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.” — William Shakespeare

• “Go to your bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.” — William Shakespeare

• “Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.” — William Shakespeare

• “In black ink, my love may still shine bright.” — William Shakespeare

• “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom.” — William Shakespeare

• “Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.” — William Shakespeare

• “See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. O, that I was a glove upon that hand that I might touch that cheek!” — William Shakespeare

• “When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.” — William Shakespeare

• “Such as we are made of, such we be.” — William Shakespeare

• “The course of true love never did run smoothly.” — 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

• “Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.” — William Shakespeare

• “To be, or not to be: that is the question.” — William Shakespeare

• “For which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?” — 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

• “All that glisters is not gold.” — William Shakespeare

• “Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find.” — William Shakespeare

• “The fault…is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” — 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

• “I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.” — William Shakespeare

• “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.” — William Shakespeare

• “Speak low, if you speak love.” — 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

• “My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break.” — William Shakespeare

• “Brevity is the soul of wit.” — William Shakespeare

• “Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.” — William Shakespeare

• “Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up o-er wrought heart and bids it break.” — William Shakespeare

• “Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.” — 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

• “I am not bound to please thee with my answer.” — William Shakespeare

• “Conscience doth make cowards of us all.” — William Shakespeare

• “Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.” — William Shakespeare

• “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” — William Shakespeare

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

• “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” — William Shakespeare

• “There’s many a man has more hair than wit.” — William Shakespeare

• “Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.” — William Shakespeare

• “Love is merely a madness.” — William Shakespeare

• “I dote on his very absence.” — William Shakespeare

• “Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?” — William Shakespeare

• “All things are ready if our mind be so.” — William Shakespeare

• “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.” — William Shakespeare

• “Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.” — William Shakespeare

• “Many a true word hath been spoken in jest.” — William Shakespeare

•  “How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath to say to me that thou art out of breath?” — William Shakespeare

• “For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.” — William Shakespeare

• “I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue.” — William Shakespeare

• “The Devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape.” — William Shakespeare

• “Thought is free.” — William Shakespeare

• “I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.” — William Shakespeare

• “O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil.” — William Shakespeare

• “Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.” — William Shakespeare

• “I will praise any man that will praise me.” — William Shakespeare

• “My pride fell with my fortunes.” — William Shakespeare

• “Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak.” — William Shakespeare

• “April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” — William Shakespeare

• “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” — William Shakespeare

• “Maids want nothing but husbands, and when they have them, they want everything.” — 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

• “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” — William Shakespeare

• “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” — William Shakespeare

• “Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.” — 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

• “He that loves to be flattered is worthy of the flatterer.” — William Shakespeare

• “God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.” — William Shakespeare

• “Men should be what they seem.”

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William Shakespeare Biography

People don’t understand why Shakespeare is so popular, but he is still our best entertainer and, at least, one of the best thinkers we have.

He also had a lot of knowledge. During this time, England saw a lot of poetry and drama, led by Shakespeare.

Stratford-up-Holy Avon’s Trinity church kept a record of William Shakespeare’s baptism on April 26, 1564, even though the exact date of his birth is unknown at this time.

There, he was born in Henley Street, Stratford, Warwickshire; he was raised there. April 23 has long been thought to be the date he was born.

Childhood and family life

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, a busy market town 100 miles northwest of London.

He was baptized there on April 26, 1564, and died there in 1616. April 23, which is the date of his death in 1616 and the feast day of St. George, England’s patron saint, is a good time to remember his birthday.

His father was a well-known businessman in the area, and his mother was the daughter of a landowner.

Shakespeare is widely thought to be the best writer in the English language and the best dramatist in the world.

His name is often used as a title for him in England. He is also known as the “Bard of Avon.” Some of his work isn’t clear about who wrote it.

He wrote 38 plays, about 154 sonnets and two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of which aren’t clear who made them.

Every major living language has translated his plays. His plays have been put on a lot more often than the plays of any other playwright.

Shakespeare’s Lost Years and Early Career

Between 1585, when his twins were baptized, and 1592, when playwright Robert Greene called him an “upstart crow” in a pamphlet, Shakespeare isn’t in the history books (evidence that he had already made a name for himself on the London stage).

What did the newlywed father and future literary star do during the seven “lost” years he spent with his new wife and family?

People who study history say that he worked as a teacher, studied law, traveled across Europe, or joined an acting troupe that was passing through Stratford.

According to one account from the 17th century, he left his hometown after he took deer from a local politician’s estate. William Shakespeare’s quotes are also very popular with today’s generation.

Marriage and personal life 

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, and they had two children. When he met her, she was eight years older than he was at the time.

They had three children: Susanna, twins Hamnet and Judith, and a third child, a girl named Judith. After he married, it was very hard to find out about his life.

That’s not true, though. He is thought to have spent most of his time in London writing and performing in his plays, though.

It was between 1585 and 1592 in London that he started a successful career as an actor and author. He was part owner of a theatre group called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which later became known as the King’s Men.

His work

They are good at all of these types of music. During the next few years, he mostly wrote tragedies, like Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, which are some of the best English language works ever written, as well.

In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, which are also called romances. He worked with other playwrights to write them together, too.

Many of his plays were published in editions that were different in quality and accuracy while he was alive.

In 1623, two of Shakespeare’s friends and fellow actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell, published the First Folio, which was a collection of his plays.

It had all but two of the plays that are now known as Shakespeare’s. “Not of this age, but of all time,” Ben Jonson wrote in the poem that came before it. In the 20^th and 21^st centuries, his work has been used and re-used by new groups of scholars and performers.

His plays are still very popular today, and they are often studied, performed, and reworked in different cultural and political settings all over the world.

Shakespeare’s Death and Legacy

Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, at the age of 52, of unknown causes. He left the bulk of his money to his daughter Susanna, who was his only child. Anne Hathaway, who lived seven years longer than her husband, is famous for getting his “second-best bed.”

The slab stone over Shakespeare’s tomb, which is in a church in Stratford, has an epitaph on it that some say was written by the bard himself. It says, “Blessed be the man that spares these stones, / and cursed be he who moves my bones.”

His body hasn’t been disturbed, even though archaeologists want to know what killed him. In 1623, two of Shakespeare’s old friends put together a collection of his plays called the First Folio. This is what Ben Jonson said about his late friend in the preface of his book.

He said that “he was not of an age, but for all time.” Indeed, Shakespeare’s plays are still on the stage and have a strong effect on people all over the world.

They have been made into movies, TV shows, and plays. The English language has changed more than any other language in history because of Shakespeare, who is thought to have coined or at least popularised words and phrases that still show up in everyday conversation.