If you’re searching for the most beautiful and timeless William Shakespeare quotes, your search ends here. Shakespeare’s words have inspired hearts for centuries — full of love, wisdom, humor, and deep truths about life. Whether it’s romance, friendship, or courage, his quotes continue to guide us even today. This article brings you the 7 best categories of William Shakespeare’s quotes, each filled with 13 unforgettable lines and one best pick from every section. The language is simple so that even an 8-year-old can enjoy and explain these quotes easily.
💖 William Shakespeare Quotes on Love
- Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
- The course of true love never did run smooth.
- When I saw you, I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew.
- Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.
- My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep.
- If music be the food of love, play on.
- I do love nothing in the world so well as you.
- Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.
- They do not love that do not show their love.
- Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.
- Doubt thou the stars are fire; doubt that the sun doth move.
- Love is too young to know what conscience is.
- The sight of lovers feedeth those in love.
Best Pick: The course of true love never did run smooth.
🌅 William Shakespeare Quotes on Life
- Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage.
- All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
- To thine own self be true.
- The meaning of life is to find your purpose and live it fully.
- Be not afraid of greatness.
- Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale.
- Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.
- What’s done cannot be undone.
- Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win.
- We know what we are but know not what we may be.
- Life is short, but the memory of goodness lasts forever.
- Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.
- Men should be what they seem.
Best Pick: All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
👑 William Shakespeare Quotes on Wisdom
- The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
- Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.
- There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
- The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.
- Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
- Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.
- Words are easy, like the wind; faithful friends are hard to find.
- A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows he is a fool.
- The better part of valour is discretion.
- Time is very slow for those who wait, very fast for those who fear.
- The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
- Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.
- Conscience doth make cowards of us all.
Best Pick: The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
⚔️ William Shakespeare Quotes on Courage and Strength
- Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.
- Strong reasons make strong actions.
- The better part of valour is discretion.
- Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
- Boldness be my friend.
- My crown is called content — a crown that seldom kings enjoy.
- Greatness lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
- The brave man carves out his fortune with his sword.
- Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.
- There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.
- Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly.
- The valiant never taste of death but once.
- Our bodies are gardens, to which our wills are gardeners.
Best Pick: Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
💫 William Shakespeare Quotes on Dreams and Imagination
- We are such stuff as dreams are made on.
- The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact.
- Nothing will come of nothing; speak again.
- Imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown.
- Dream in fear, but act in courage.
- True lovers run into strange capers.
- Heaven gives us freely, but we must dream to see it.
- Our doubts are traitors that steal our dreams.
- All that glisters is not gold.
- Thoughts are but dreams till their effects be tried.
- To sleep, perchance to dream.
- My dreams are the children of an idle brain.
- Great dreams come from great hearts.
Best Pick: We are such stuff as dreams are made on.
🌹 William Shakespeare Quotes on Friendship
- A friend is one that knows you as you are and still loves you.
- I count myself in nothing else so happy as in a soul remembering my good friends.
- Words are easy, like the wind; faithful friends are hard to find.
- Friendship is constant in all other things, save in the office and affairs of love.
- I do desire we may be better strangers.
- The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.
- Keep thy friend under thy own life’s key.
- Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
- Give me that man that is not passion’s slave.
- Friendship makes prosperity more shining and lessens adversity.
- Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness.
- Friendship is the golden thread that ties all hearts together.
- The heart knows no friendship like a true one.
Best Pick: Words are easy, like the wind; faithful friends are hard to find.
🕰️ William Shakespeare Quotes on Time and Fate
- Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides.
- O, call back yesterday, bid time return.
- Time travels in divers paces with divers persons.
- There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune.
- Time is the justice that examines all offenders.
- The time of life is short; to spend that shortness basely is too long.
- Defer no time; delays have dangerous ends.
- Time’s glory is to calm contending kings.
- The wheel is come full circle.
- The time of life is but a walking shadow.
- Things done well and with a care exempt themselves from fear.
- Time waits for no one but punishes all.
- Let every man be master of his time.
Best Pick: There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune.
🎭 Conclusion
William Shakespeare’s words continue to live forever because they speak to every part of the human heart — love, courage, friendship, and truth. His quotes teach us that life is a stage, and we are all actors with our own stories. His wisdom is timeless and will always inspire anyone who seeks beauty in words.
