The Best Shakespeare Quotes

William Shakespeare is, to this day, seen as one of the greatest writers of all time. His plays and stories are used all the time in many different ways. Especially, his quotes.

So, to make life fun and easier for you, here is a master list of the best Shakespeare quotes of all time.

To Make You Think

1. “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.” (As You Like It)
2. “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” (Twelfth Night)
3. “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” (As You Like It)
4. “This above all: to thine own self be true.” (Hamlet)
5. “All that glisters is not gold.” (The Merchant of Venice)
6. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” (Hamlet)
7. “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” (Henry IV)
8. “These violent delights have violent ends,” (Romeo and Juliet)
9. “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” (All’s Well That Ends Well)
10. “Cowards dies 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.” (Julius Caesar)

Romance

1. “If music be the food of love play on.” (Twelfth Night)
2. “I am one who loves not wisely but too well.” (Othello)
3. “What’s in a name? A rose by any name would smell as sweet.” (Romeo and Juliet)
4. “The course of true love never did run smooth.” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
5. “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
6. “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” (Sonnet 18)
7. “Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.” (Much Ado About Nothing)
8. “Doubt thou the stars are fire; doubt that the sun doth move; doubt truth to be a liar; but never doubt I love.” (Hamlet)
9. “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.” (Romeo and Juliet)
10. “Here my soul speak: The very instant that I saw you, did my heart fly to your service.” (The Tempest)

Hilariously Random

1. “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” (Hamlet)
2. “A horse! A horse! my kingdom for a horse!” (Richard III)
3. “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
4. “I do bite my thumb, sir.” (Romeo and Juliet)
5. “I cannot tell what the dickens his name is.” (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
6. “Mine eyes smell onions.” (All’s Well That Ends Well)
7. “There lives not three good men unhanged in England: and one of them is fat.” (Henry IV)
8. “It is like the barber’s chair that fits all buttocks, the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn-buttock, or any buttock.” (All’s Well That Ends Well)
9. “Life… is a tale told by an idiot.” (Macbeth)
10. “I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.” (As You Like It)

Insults to Use on a Daily Basis

1. “Thou has no more brain than I have in mine elbows!” (Troilus and Cressida)
2. “I do desire we may be better strangers.” (As You Like It)
3. “You Banbury cheese!” (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
4. “I am sick when I do look on thee.” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
5. “Out of my sight! Thou dost infect my eyes.” (Richard III)
6. “… thou lily-livered boy” (Macbeth)
7. “You speak an infinite deal of nothing.” (The Merchant of Venice)
8. “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” (Macbeth)
9. “Away, you three-inch fool.” (The Taming of the Shrew)
10. “You, minion, are too saucy.” (The Two Gentlemen of Verona)