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Quotations by Play

Tragedies

 Antony and Cleopatra
 Coriolanus
 Hamlet
 Julius Caesar
 King Lear
 Macbeth
 Othello
 Romeo and Juliet
 Timon of Athens
 Titus Andronicus

Histories

 Henry IV, Part I
 Henry IV, Part II
 Henry V
 Henry VI, Part I
 Henry VI, Part II
 Henry VI, Part III
 Henry VIII
 King John
 Richard II
 Richard III

Comedies

 All's Well That Ends Well
 As You Like It
 The Comedy of Errors
 Cymbeline
 Love's Labours Lost
 Measure for Measure
 The Merry Wives of Windsor
 The Merchant of Venice
 A Midsummer Night's Dream
 Much Ado About Nothing
 Pericles, Prince of Tyre
 The Taming of the Shrew
 The Tempest
 Troilus and Cressida
 Twelfth Night
 Two Gentlemen of Verona
 The Winter's Tale

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Proverb of the Day

Modest doubt is call'd
The beacon of the wise.
Troilus and Cressida (2.2), Hector

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More

 Bear Baiting
 Shocking Elizabethan Drama
 Opening Lines Quiz
 The King's Men

 Characters A to Z
 Top 10 Plays
 Shakespeare's Language
 What is the Ur-Hamlet?




Quotations by Theme

 Shakespeare on Anger
 Shakespeare on Envy
 Shakespeare on Fate
 Shakespeare on Fathers
 Shakespeare on Flowers

 Shakespeare on Friendship
 Shakespeare on Gluttony
 Shakespeare on Greed
 Shakespeare on Horses
 Shakespeare on Jealousy

 Shakespeare on Lawyers
 Shakespeare on Lust
 Shakespeare on Marriage

 Shakespeare's Metaphors
 Shakespeare on Music
 Shakespeare on Old Age
 Shakespeare on Omens
 Shakespeare on Poverty
 Shakespeare on Pride

 Shakespeare on Revenge
 Shakespeare on the Seasons
 Shakespeare on Sleep
 Shakespeare on Sloth

 Shakespeare's Songs
 Shakespeare on Swans
 Shakespeare Wedding Readings
 Scary Shakespeare
 Shakespearean Insults

 Shakespeare Quotes on Cain and Abel
 Quotations About Shakespeare

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On Shakespeare's Heroines

"Shakespeare reserves all his adoration for his heroines. His good women are angelic beings. His young heroines, Miranda, Cordelia, Imogen, Juliet, Perdita seem all to be spirits of the same heaven, and are like different aspects of the same woman rather than different women: they are the quintessence of romanticism. His heroines of mature years, as for instance, Hermione (in A Winter's Tale), and Queen Katherine, have the same quality. He cannot refrain from throwing a dash of connubial romance into Cleopatra."
John Jay Chapman, A Glance Toward Shakespeare

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On Shakespeare's Genius

"It may be reckoned one of the rarest pieces of good-luck that ever fell to the share of a race, that (as was true of Shakespeare) its most rhythmic genius, its acutest intellect, its profoundest imagination, and its healthiest understanding should have been combined in one man, and that he should have arrived at the full development of his powers at the moment when the material in which he was to work — that wonderful composite called English, the best result of the confusion of tongues — was in its freshest perfection."
James Russell Lowell, Literary Essays, Vol. 3, 1890

In the Spotlight

Top 10 Quotes from Julius Caesar

Julius CaesarCowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
                   Julius Caesar (2.2), Cæsar

Although there were earlier Elizabethan plays on the subject of Julius Caesar and his turbulent rule, Shakespeare's penetrating study of political life in ancient Rome is the only version to recount the demise of Brutus and the other conspirators. Here are the top ten quotations from Julius Caesar.

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Shakespeare on Lawyers and the Law

The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
                          Richard II (2.4), Captain

Shakespeare mentions law more than any other profession. Although we assume Shakespeare did not formally study law, we see from the many references in the plays that he had acquired a significant general knowledge of legal terminology. The legal jargon in Hamlet's speech in Act 5 is especially impressive. Read on...

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Shakespeare on Love

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, 2.2

Here is our collection of Shakespeare's most inspired and romantic passages on love and devotion.

What Shakespeare Didn't Say

Cartoon of the Dunford PortraitGranted, Shakespeare gave us more memorable quotes than any other writer, but often he gets credit for the clever quips of other greats, like Ben Franklin and John Milton. Here are some of the most common words of wisdom mistakenly attributed to the Bard.