Timeless Wisdom: 20 Profound Quotes About Life by William Shakespeare

 

1. "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."
   As You Like It (Act II, Scene VII)

2. "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
   Macbeth (Act V, Scene V)

3. "The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together."
   All's Well That Ends Well (Act IV, Scene III)

4. "Out, out brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow."
   Macbeth (Act V, Scene V)

5. "When he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun."
   Romeo and Juliet (Act III, Scene II)

6. "This above all: to thine own self be true."
   Hamlet (Act I, Scene III)

7. "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."
   Hamlet (Act III, Scene I)

8. "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."
   The Tempest (Act IV, Scene I)

9. "Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once."
   Julius Caesar (Act II, Scene II)

10. "No legacy is so rich as honesty."
    All's Well That Ends Well (Act III, Scene V)

11. "Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment."
    Hamlet (Act I, Scene III)

12. "The better part of Valour, is Discretion."
    Henry IV, Part 1 (Act V, Scene IV)

13. "A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."
    As You Like It (Act V, Scene I)

14. "How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world."
    The Merchant of Venice (Act V, Scene I)

15. "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."
    All's Well That Ends Well (Act I, Scene I)

16. "The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones."
    Julius Caesar (Act III, Scene II)

17. "Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them."
    Twelfth Night (Act II, Scene V)

18. "The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief."
    Othello (Act I, Scene III)

19. "What's done cannot be undone."
    Macbeth (Act V, Scene I)

20. "With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."
    The Merchant of Venice (Act I, Scene I)

21. "When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools."
    King Lear (Act IV, Scene VI)

22. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."
    Troilus and Cressida (Act III, Scene III)

23. "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
    Hamlet (Act II, Scene II)

24. "Brevity is the soul of wit."
    Hamlet (Act II, Scene II)

25. "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."
    As You Like It (Act V, Scene I)

26. "Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing."
    Troilus and Cressida (Act I, Scene II)

27. "Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind."
    Henry VI, Part 3 (Act V, Scene VI)

28. "The course of true love never did run smooth."
    A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act I, Scene I)

29. "Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it promises."
    All's Well That Ends Well (Act II, Scene I)

30. "The miserable have no other medicine but only hope."
    Measure for Measure (Act III, Scene I)

31. "Nothing will come of nothing."
    King Lear (Act I, Scene I)

32. "Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head."
    As You Like It (Act II, Scene I)

33. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."
    Julius Caesar (Act I, Scene II)

34. "Men at some time are masters of their fates."
    Julius Caesar (Act I, Scene II)

35. "What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving, how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?"
    Hamlet (Act II, Scene II)

36. "True nobility is exempt from fear."
    Henry VI, Part 2 (Act IV, Scene I)

37. "In time we hate that which we often fear."
    Antony and Cleopatra (Act I, Scene III)

38. "Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving."
    Othello (Act II, Scene III)

39. "Better three hours too soon than a minute too late."
    The Merry Wives of Windsor (Act II, Scene II)

40. "Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt."
    Measure for Measure (Act I, Scene IV)

41. "The fool thinks himself to be wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."
    As You Like It (Act V, Scene I)

42. "All that glitters is not gold."
    The Merchant of Venice (Act II, Scene VII)

43. "I wasted time, and now doth time waste me."
    Richard II (Act V, Scene V)

44. "We know what we are, but know not what we may be."
    Hamlet (Act IV, Scene V)

45. "It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."
    Julius Caesar (Act I, Scene II)

46. "I bear a charmed life."
    Macbeth (Act V, Scene VIII)

47. "The better part of valor is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life."
    Henry IV, Part 1 (Act V, Scene IV)

48. "Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall."
    Measure for Measure (Act II, Scene I)

49. "He that is giddy thinks the world turns round."
    The Taming of the Shrew (Act V, Scene II)

50. "One may smile, and smile, and be a villain."
    Hamlet (Act I, Scene V)

This collection should give you a good start. Would you like to focus on any specific themes or works further?