27 verified quotes from 15 works, 1597 to 1623.
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) wrote his plays for the stage, not for readers; about half of them were first printed in the First Folio of 1623, seven years after his death, and the rest earlier in single-play quartos. His Sonnets were published in 1609.
Lines from the plays are spoken by characters, whom we name, and the year given is the play’s first printing; the sonnets are in his own voice. Each quote was found word for word in the Project Gutenberg text we link, spelled as that edition spells it.
What “verified” means, and what we leave out: How we verify.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet
Our note: Juliet, on her balcony, wishes Romeo were not a Montague.
Verified in the full text of Romeo and Juliet on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: The Musicians, Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), 1597
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother
Our note: From the king's speech to his outnumbered army before Agincourt.
Verified in the full text of Henry V on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: The Golden Age, Joachim Wtewael, 1605
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
Our note: Portia, returning home at night, sees a candle burning in her hall.
Verified in the full text of The Merchant of Venice on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: Madonna and Child with Saints, Ludovico Carracci, 1607
The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath.
Our note: Portia, disguised as a lawyer, pleads for mercy in court.
Verified in the full text of The Merchant of Venice on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: Madonna and Child with Saints, Ludovico Carracci, 1607
For aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth.
Our note: Lysander comforts Hermia after her father forbids their marriage.
Verified in the full text of A Midsummer Night's Dream on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: Madonna and Child with Saints, Ludovico Carracci, 1607
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.
Our note: Polonius's parting advice to his son Laertes, who is leaving for France.
Verified in the full text of Hamlet on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: Madonna and Child with Saints, Ludovico Carracci, 1607
…there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
Our note: Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, explaining why Denmark feels like a prison to him.
Verified in the full text of Hamlet on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Woodland Road with Travelers, Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1607
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Our note: Hamlet to his friend Horatio after meeting his father's ghost.
Verified in the full text of Hamlet on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: The Golden Age, Joachim Wtewael, 1605
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice
Our note: More of Polonius's advice to Laertes.
Verified in the full text of Hamlet on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Woodland Road with Travelers, Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1607
Neither a borrower nor a lender be: For loan oft loses both itself and friend
Our note: Polonius warns Laertes about money between friends.
Verified in the full text of Hamlet on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: The Golden Age, Joachim Wtewael, 1605
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.
Our note: Said by the famously long-winded Polonius, which is the joke.
Verified in the full text of Hamlet on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: Madonna and Child with Saints, Ludovico Carracci, 1607
What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason
Our note: Hamlet on human greatness, in a speech that turns melancholy.
Verified in the full text of Hamlet on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Woodland Road with Travelers, Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1607
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: …
Our note: The opening of Shakespeare's best-known sonnet.
Verified in the full text of Sonnet 18 on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: The Golden Age, Joachim Wtewael, 1605
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Our note: The closing couplet of the sonnet that begins in despair.
Verified in the full text of Sonnet 29 on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: The Golden Age, Joachim Wtewael, 1605
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments, love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds
Our note: The opening of the sonnet about love that does not change.
Verified in the full text of Sonnet 116 on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Woodland Road with Travelers, Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1607
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin
Our note: Ulysses on what all people share. In context he means our shared love of novelty.
Verified in the full text of Troilus and Cressida on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Woodland Road with Travelers, Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1607
Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none.
Our note: The Countess's blessing to her son Bertram as he leaves for court.
Verified in the full text of All's Well That Ends Well on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Musician and His Daughter, Thomas de Keyser, 1629
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, …
Our note: The start of Jaques's speech on the seven ages of a life.
Verified in the full text of As You Like It on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Musician and His Daughter, Thomas de Keyser, 1629
Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; …
Our note: The banished Duke finds good in his exile in the Forest of Arden.
Verified in the full text of As You Like It on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo, Anthony van Dyck, 1624
And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
Our note: The banished Duke on what life in the forest teaches.
Verified in the full text of As You Like It on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Cardinal's Procession, Ottavio Leoni (Il Padovano), 1621
Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.
Our note: Caesar dismisses his wife's fears on the morning of the Ides of March.
Verified in the full text of Julius Caesar on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Musician and His Daughter, Thomas de Keyser, 1629
There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; …
Our note: Brutus argues for acting while the moment is right.
Verified in the full text of Julius Caesar on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo, Anthony van Dyck, 1624
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Our note: Cassius tells Brutus that their fate is in their own hands.
Verified in the full text of Julius Caesar on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Cardinal's Procession, Ottavio Leoni (Il Padovano), 1621
Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win By fearing to attempt.
Our note: Lucio urges Isabella to go and plead for her brother's life.
Verified in the full text of Measure for Measure on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo, Anthony van Dyck, 1624
We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.
Our note: Prospero ends the magical show he has staged for the young lovers.
Verified in the full text of The Tempest on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, Pieter Claesz, 1628
…be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.
Our note: Malvolio reads these words in a forged letter meant to fool him.
Verified in the full text of Twelfth Night on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Cardinal's Procession, Ottavio Leoni (Il Padovano), 1621
If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die.
Our note: The play's opening lines, spoken by the lovesick Duke Orsino.
Verified in the full text of Twelfth Night on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo, Anthony van Dyck, 1624
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