Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men and hang up them.
— Macbeth
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. Born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, he built a career in London as an actor, writer and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men.
His works include some 39 plays, 154 sonnets and 3 long narrative poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He is often called England's national poet, or simply the Bard. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth are among his most quoted works in our library.
His works include some 39 plays, 154 sonnets and 3 long narrative poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He is often called England's national poet, or simply the Bard. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth are among his most quoted works in our library.
— Much Ado About Nothing
To move wild laughter in the throat of death? It cannot be, it is impossible: Mirth cannot move a soul in agony.
— Love's Labour's Lost
Let us not burthen our remembrance withA heaviness that's gone.
— The Tempest
I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
— Hamlet
He is as full of valor as of kindness. Princely in both.
— Henry V
I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano!
— The Merchant of Venice
Men in rage strike those that wish them best.
— Othello
For your sake, jewel, I am glad at soul I have no other child; For thy escape would teach me tyranny, To hang clogs on them.
— Othello
Cucullus non facit monachum; that’s as much to say, as I wear not motley in my brain.
— Twelfth Night
I beg for justice, which you, Prince, must give. Romeo killed Tybalt; Romeo must not live.
— Romeo and Juliet
All things are ready, if our mind be so.
— Henry V
Alack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds and waters sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacs can report: this cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove.
— Antony and Cleopatra
Small herbs have grace, great weeds to grow apace.
Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting.