All that glisters is not gold;
William Shakespeare
- Life
- 1564-1616
- Occupations
- playwright, poet, stage actor
- Notable works
- Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It
Facts: Wikidata (CC0), as of 2026-07-09
Shakespeare is the most quoted writer in English partly because English is made of him: 'wild-goose chase', 'break the ice', and 'wear my heart upon my sleeve' all enter the record through the plays. Misattribution runs both directions here -- he gets credited with Bible verses and proverbs he merely staged, while 'all that glisters is not gold' is silently modernized to 'glitters'. And remember who is talking: 'Frailty, thy name is woman' is Hamlet's grief speaking, not Shakespeare's considered opinion.
All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told; Many a man his life hath sold But my outside to behold.
William Shakespeare
All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their enterances, And one man in his time plays many parts.
William Shakespeare
All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their enterances, And one man in his time plays many parts. Act II, sc.7
William Shakespeare
Alonso: a kind Of excellent dumb discourse
William Shakespeare
A man I am cross'd with adversity.
William Shakespeare
Ambition, the soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss, than gain which darkens him.
William Shakespeare
And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
William Shakespeare
And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge, With Ate by his side, come hot from hell, Shall in these confines, with a monarch's voice, Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war, That this foul deed shall smell above the earth With carrion men, groaning for burial.
William Shakespeare
And I beseech you, Wrest once the law to your authority, To do a great right, do a little wrong, And curb this cruel devil of his will.
William Shakespeare
An old man is twice a child.
William Shakespeare
Are you the prankish elf I've heard about? But those that call you by the name 'sweet puck'? You do there work, and they shall have good luck, are you not he?
William Shakespeare
Ariel: I will be correspondent to command, And do my spiriting gently.
William Shakespeare
Ariel (singing): Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange.
William Shakespeare
Ariel (singing): Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Act i, Sc. 2
William Shakespeare
As many arrows, loosed several ways, come to one mark ... so may a thousand actions, once afoot, end in one purpose.
William Shakespeare
I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by daylight.
William Shakespeare
Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.
William Shakespeare
That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she brought me up, I likewise give her most humble thanks: but that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me.
William Shakespeare
The world must be peopled!
William Shakespeare
But mercy is above this sceptered sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute of God himself.
William Shakespeare
By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.
William Shakespeare
By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. 2nd Witch, Act 4, Scene I
William Shakespeare
Friendship is constant in all other things, save in the office and affairs of love.
William Shakespeare
Double, double toil and trouble;
William Shakespeare
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
William Shakespeare
Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!
William Shakespeare
Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
William Shakespeare
Frailty, thy name is woman!
William Shakespeare
Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any thing. The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death.
William Shakespeare
Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
William Shakespeare
He takes false shadows for true substances.
William Shakespeare
His heart and hand both open and both free; For what he has he gives, what thinks he shows; Yet gives he not till judgment guide his bounty.
William Shakespeare
His heart and hand both open and both free; For what he has he gives, what thinks he shows; Yet gives he not till judgment guide his bounty. Act 4, Scene 5
William Shakespeare
If every ducat in six thousand ducats Were in six parts, and every part a ducat I would not draw them. I would have my bond.
William Shakespeare
If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly.
William Shakespeare
If thou remember’st not the slighest folly That ever love did make thee run into, Thou hast not lov’d
William Shakespeare
If thou remember'st not the slighest folly That ever love did make thee run into, Thou hast not lov'd Act 2, Scene IV
William Shakespeare
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?
William Shakespeare
If you repay not on such a day let the forfeit be an equal pound of your fair flesh.
William Shakespeare
I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, and falls on the other.
William Shakespeare
I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
William Shakespeare
I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
William Shakespeare
I hold ambition of so light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow.
William Shakespeare
I’ll not be made a soft and dull eyed fool!
William Shakespeare
In Belmont is a lady richly left And she is fair.
William Shakespeare
I said, an elder soldier, not a better: Did I say “better”?
William Shakespeare
I said, an elder soldier, not a better: Did I say "better"?
William Shakespeare
I was adored once too.
William Shakespeare
Kindness, nobler ever than revenge.
William Shakespeare
Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.
William Shakespeare
Let me not live, after my flame lacks oil, to be the snuff of younger spirits.
William Shakespeare
Let me play the fool!
William Shakespeare
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
William Shakespeare
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
William Shakespeare
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. Helena, Act 1, Scene I
William Shakespeare
Lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
William Shakespeare
Lowliness is young ambition's ladder, whereto the climber-upward turns his face; But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend.
William Shakespeare
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.
William Shakespeare
Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
William Shakespeare
Men should be what they seem, Or those that be not, Would they might seem none!
William Shakespeare
Miranda: There’s nothing ill can dwell in such a temple: If the ill spirit have so fair a house, Good things will strive to dwell with’t.
William Shakespeare
Miranda: There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple: If the ill spirit have so fair a house, Good things will strive to dwell with't. Act i, Sc. 2
William Shakespeare
My age is as a lusty winter, frosty, but kindly.
William Shakespeare
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
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
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
William Shakespeare
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain.
William Shakespeare
My salad days, when I was green in judgement, cold in blood.
William Shakespeare
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
William Shakespeare
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
William Shakespeare
Now is the winter of our discontent
William Shakespeare
Off with his head!
William Shakespeare
O, from this time forth My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth!
William Shakespeare
O! I am Fortune’s fool.
William Shakespeare
O! I am Fortune's fool. Act III, Scene 1
William Shakespeare
O, I have passed a miserable night, So full of ugly dreams, of ugly sights, That, as I am a Christian faithful man, I would not spend another such a night Though ’twere to buy a world of happy days, So full of dismal terror was the time.
William Shakespeare
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead.
William Shakespeare
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
William Shakespeare
Ornament is but the guiled shore to a most dangerous sea.
William Shakespeare
O, what may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!
William Shakespeare
For us, and for our tragedy, Here stooping to your clemency, We beg your hearing patiently.
William Shakespeare
Prospero: Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar That beasts shall tremble at thy din.
William Shakespeare
Prospero: I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated To closeness and the bettering of my mind
William Shakespeare
Prospero: like one Who having into truth, by telling of it, Made such a sinner of his memory, To credit his own lie
William Shakespeare
Prospero: my library Was dukedom large enough
William Shakespeare
We are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.
William Shakespeare
What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time?
William Shakespeare
She should have died hereafter- there would have been time for such a thing.
William Shakespeare
So the may the outward shows be least themselves; The world is still deceived with ornament.
William Shakespeare
So wise so young, they say, do never live long.
William Shakespeare
He that dies pays all debts.
William Shakespeare
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
William Shakespeare
Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in the stones, and good in every thing.
William Shakespeare
Taste your legs, sir; put them to motion.
William Shakespeare
That’s certain. I for my part knew the tailor That made the wings she flew withal.
William Shakespeare
That will ask some tears in the true performing of it: if I do it, let the audience look to their eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some measure. Bottom, Act 1 Scene 2
William Shakespeare
The baby figure of the giant mass Of things to come.
William Shakespeare
The baby figure of the giant mass Of things to come. Act 1, Scene 3
William Shakespeare
The common curse of mankind, folly and ignorance, be thine in great revenue! heaven bless thee from a tutor, and discipline come not near thee!
William Shakespeare
The course of true love never did run smooth
William Shakespeare
The Devil can cite scripture to suit his purpose.
William Shakespeare
The end crowns all, And that old common arbitrator, Time, Will one day end it.
William Shakespeare
The end crowns all, And that old common arbitrator, Time, Will one day end it. Act 4, Scene 5
William Shakespeare
The old folk, time's doting chronicles.
William Shakespeare
The Play's The Thing
William Shakespeare
The pound of flesh that I demand of him Is dearly bought.
William Shakespeare
The quality of mercy is not strained.
William Shakespeare
There is no vice so simple but assumes some mark of virtue on his outward parts.
William Shakespeare
The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good.
William Shakespeare
There's no art
William Shakespeare
There’s no art To find the mind’s construction in the face
William Shakespeare
The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
William Shakespeare
The villany you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction.
William Shakespeare
Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing.
William Shakespeare
Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.
William Shakespeare
Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing. Act 1, Scene 2
William Shakespeare
This above all: to thine own self be true
William Shakespeare
Thou hast nor youth nor age, but, as it were, an after-diner’s sleep, dreaming on both.
William Shakespeare
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; and thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought And enterprises of great pitch and moment With this reagard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action.
William Shakespeare
Thus hath the candle singed the moth.
William Shakespeare
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
William Shakespeare
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! Juliet, Act II Scene II
William Shakespeare
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
William Shakespeare
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?
William Shakespeare
To me, fair Friend, you never can be old,
William Shakespeare
To me, fair Friend, you never can be old, For as you were when first your eye I eyed
William Shakespeare
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
William Shakespeare
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day, All in the morning betime.
William Shakespeare
To say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.
William Shakespeare
To sleep, perchance to dream.
William Shakespeare
Trinculo: misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows
William Shakespeare
Try what my credit can in Venice do To furnish you to Belmont, and fair Portia.
William Shakespeare
Vanity! Thy name is woman!
William Shakespeare
Virtue is chok’d with foul ambition.
William Shakespeare
Virtue is chok'd with foul ambition. Henry VI, Part II, Act III, sc. 1.
William Shakespeare
Was ever book containing such vile matter so fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell in such a gorgeous palace!
William Shakespeare
Welcome ever smiles, And farewell goes out sighing.
William Shakespeare
Welcome ever smiles, And farewell goes out sighing. Act 3, Scene 3
William Shakespeare
What is honour? A word. What is that word, honour? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died o' Wednesday.
William Shakespeare
What's done cannot be undone.
William Shakespeare
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.
William Shakespeare
What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. Act II, Scene II
William Shakespeare
Yea, noise? then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rest, and let me die.
William Shakespeare
Yea, noise? then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rest, and let me die.
William Shakespeare
You know me well, and herein spend but time To wind about my love with circumstance And out of doubt you do me now more wrong.
William Shakespeare
Young in limbs, in judgement old.
William Shakespeare
Your ‘if’ is the only peace-maker; much virtue in ‘if.’
William Shakespeare
Your 'if' is the only peace-maker; much virtue in 'if.' Act 5, scene IV
William Shakespeare
You shall more command with years that with your weapons.
William Shakespeare
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
William Shakespeare