90+ Best Quotes by Shakespeare for Everyone in 2025
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the renowned English playwright, poet, and actor, is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language. Known as “The Bard of Avon,” Shakespeare’s work includes 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and numerous narrative poems that have significantly influenced literature and the arts. His quotes continue to inspire readers worldwide, offering profound insights into love, ambition, life, and the human condition.
In 2025, Quotes by Shakespeare remain timeless, providing wisdom and guidance for those seeking direction in life. This blog explores some of the best Quotes by Shakespeare that will inspire and enlighten everyone.
Best Quotes by Shakespeare
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone.
The Eyes are the window to your soul.
“Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.”
“By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.”
Go wisely and slowly. Those who rush stumble and fall.
To do a great right do a little wrong.
“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.”
“Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”
“I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed!”
“Nothing comes from doing nothing.”
“When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.”
“These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume. The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
And in the taste confounds the appetite.
Therefore love moderately; long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.”
“Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.”
“My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break.”
“thus with a kiss I die”
“Don’t waste your love on somebody, who doesn’t value it.”
“O, it is excellent To have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant.”
“When I got enough confidence, the stage was gone. When I was sure of losing, I won. When I needed people the most, they left me. When I learnt to dry my tears, I found a shoulder to cry on. And when I mastered the art of hating, somebody started loving me.”
“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.”
“My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.”
“Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
“I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.”
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
“Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.”
“What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind.”
“The eye sees all, but the mind shows us what we want to see.”
“Listen to many, speak to a few.”
“You speak an infinite deal of nothing.”
“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
“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.”
“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.”
“Good company, good wine, good welcome can make good people.”
“Though she be but little, she is fierce!”
“Never play with the feelings of others, because you may win the game but the risk is that you will surely lose the person for life time.”
“Laughing faces do not mean that there is absence of sorrow!
But it means that they have the ability to deal with it.”
“Whose heart the accustom’d sight of death makes hard.”
“It is a wise father that knows his own child.”
“The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.”
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”
“Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!”
“To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.–Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d!”
“As, I confess, it is my nature’s plague To spy into abuses, and oft my jealousy Shapes faults that are not.”
“Have more than you show, Speak less than you know.”
“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.”
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
“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?”
“To die, – To sleep, – To sleep!
Perchance to dream: – ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;”
“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.”
“Listen to many, speak to a few.”
“Brevity is the soul of wit.”
“One may smile, and smile, and be a villain; at least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark.”
“Conscience doth make cowards of us all.”
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”
“Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince;
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
“When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!”
“God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another.”
“Desire of having is the sin of covetousness.”
“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.”
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
“Sweets to the sweet, farewell! I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife; I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid, And not have strewed thy grave.”
“Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.”
“I must be cruel only to be kind;
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.”
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“If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone.”
“What piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”
“So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.”
“O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.”
“Which dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.”
“The rest, is silence.”
“To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.”
“I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.”
“This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”
“Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
That would not let me sleep.”
“All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.”
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
“Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.”
“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”
Conclusion
In conclusion, Quotes by Shakespeare still speak to people around the world. His words give us wisdom about love, life, ambition, and self-reflection. Shakespeare’s quotes are just as important today as they were in the past. They inspire, uplift, and make us think deeper. As we move through 2025, let his words continue to guide us and remind us of the truths that bring us all together.
