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Shakespeare Quotations

"My heart is ever at your service."
~ Spoken by Alcibiades, Timon of Athens, Act I, Scene II

"Shakespeare Quotations fitingly have their place among the best love sayings and romantic sayings of classical literature and poetry. Many of Shakespeare's writings effortlessly succeed in both transporting us back to centuries past, but also providing us with ageless prose, whose romance and passion bridges time, place and culture.

This section focuses on some of the best William Shakespeare quotations from The Sonnets, The Tempest, Timon of Athens, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Venus and Adonis."

LJ

Shakespeare Quotations provide us with such richness of expression, such beauty and warmth. I hope you enjoy:

The Sonnets:
The Sonnets are a collection of poems written by William Shakespeare and published in 1609 (with two having also been published previously in 1599). The main themes of these Shakespeare quotations focus on beauty, love, passion, politics and the issue of mortality of the soul:

“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.”
~ Sonnet XVIII (18)

“All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee to me.”
~ Sonnet XLIII (43)

“How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness everywhere!”
~ Sonnet XCVII (97)

“To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
Such seems your beauty still.”
~ Sonnet CIV (104), Lines 1-3

“When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her, though I know she lies.”
~ Sonnet CXXXVIII (138)

The Tempest:
Written in approximately 1610, The Tempest is one of William Shakespeare's last written romantic comedies, and this one of the more famous shakespeare sayings from the play:

“All thy vexations,
Were but my trials of thy love, and thou
Hast strangely stood the test here.”
~ Spoken by Prospero, The Tempest, Act IV, Scene I, Lines 5-7

Timon of Athens:
While one of the more obscure of his tragedies, Timon of Athens still contains some William Shakespeare quotations that are true gems, as is the following:

"My heart is ever at your service."
~ Spoken by Alcibiades, Timon of Athens, Act I, Scene II

Twelfth Night:
A delightful and entertaining romantic comedy written in appromimately 1601, this play is packed full of wit, love and romance, as these William Shakespeare quotations show:

“If music be the food of love, play on.”
~ Spoken by Duke Orsino, Twelfth Night, Act I, Scene I, Line I

“Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know.”
~ Spoken by Clown, Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene III, Lines 41-42

“Cesario, by the roses of the spring,
By maidhood, honour, truth and ev'rything,
I love thee so, that maugre all thy pride,
Nor wit nor reason can my passion hide.
Do not extort thy reasons from this clause,
For that I woo, thou therefore hath no cause,
But rather reason thus with reason fetter,
Love sought is good; but given unsought better.”
~ Spoken by Olivia to Viola, Twelfth Night, Act III, Scene I, Lines 148-155

The Two Gentlemen of Verona:
Believed to be written in the early 1590s, this comedy deals with the complications of blurriness between friendship and love, the issue of infidelity and the extremes that one will go to in the name of love. This scene is packed full of sweet William Shakespeare quotations and sayings from the conversation between Julia and Lucetta as they discuss potential suitors for Julia:

Act 1, Scene II
Scene takes place in the garden of Julia’s house

Enter: Julia and Lucetta
Julia:
"But say, Lucetta, now we are alone,
Wouldst thou then counsel me to fall in love?"

Lucetta:
"Ay, madam, so you stumble not unheedfully."

Julia:
"Of all the fair resort of gentlemen
That every day with parle encounter me,
In thy opinion which is worthiest love?"

Lucetta:
"Please you repeat their names, I'll show my mind
According to my shallow simple skill."

Julia:
"What think'st thou of the fair Sir Eglamour?"

Lucetta:
"As of a knight well-spoken, neat and fine;
But, were I you, he never should be mine."

Julia:
"What think'st thou of the rich Mercatio?"

Lucetta:
"Well of his wealth; but of himself, so so."

Julia:
"What think'st thou of the gentle Proteus?"

Lucetta:
"Lord, Lord! to see what folly reigns in us!"

Julia:
"How now! what means this passion at his name?"

Lucetta:
"Pardon, dear madam: 'tis a passing shame That I, unworthy body as I am, Should censure thus on lovely gentlemen."

Julia:
"Why not on Proteus, as of all the rest?"

Lucetta:
"Then thus: of many good I think him best."

Julia:
"Your reason?"

Lucetta:
"I have no other, but a woman's reason;
I think him so because I think him so."

Julia:
"And wouldst thou have me cast my love on him?"

Lucetta:
"Ay, if you thought your love not cast away."

Julia:
"Why he, of all the rest, hath never moved me."

Lucetta:
"Yet he, of all the rest, I think, best loves ye."

Julia:
"His little speaking shows his love but small."

Lucetta:
"Fire that's closest kept burns most of all."

Julia:
"They do not love that do not show their love."

Lucetta:
"O, they love least that let men know their love."

Julia:
"I would I knew his mind."

Venus and Adonis:
Written in 1592-1593, this Shakespeare poem contrasts differing perspectives of the nature of love. Brimming over with words of wisdom, the following is one of my favourite Shakespeare quotations:

“Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,
But Lust's effect is tempest after sun;
Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain,
Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done;
Love surfeits not, Lust like a glutton dies;
Love is all truth, Lust full of forged lies.”
~ Spoken by Adonis, Venus and Adonis, (799-804)

Want to read more Shakespeare quotations? Just click on Page 3 to go to dozens of Shakespeare's best Romeo and Juliet quotes.

Alternatively, you may wish to go back to Page 1 which showcases Shakespeare love quotes from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, Hamlet, King Henry V and VI, Love's Labour's Lost and Richard III.

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