Browse 12 quotations connecting William Shakespeare with Love, with meanings, source notes and related themes.
Each quotation is included because its central idea connects with this theme, not simply because one matching word appears in the sentence.
Sources represented here include Romeo and Juliet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night. Keeping the work and source note beside each quotation makes differences in setting, speaker and emphasis easier to see.
Sources represented here include Romeo and Juliet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night.
“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
Love is described as complicated rather than frictionless, which makes the line a durable reminder against idealizing relationships.
Source note: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1; Lysander says this to Hermia while describing the obstacles that repeatedly frustrate lovers. It is character dialogue inside their threatened relationship.
“Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie.”
Before assuming rescue must come from outside, the line asks what capacity, choice, or effort is already available within.
Source note: All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1, Scene 1.
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
The advice combines generosity with judgment: goodwill can be broad while trust remains selective.
Source note: All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1, Scene 1; the Countess gives Bertram compact advice about conduct before he leaves.
“This above all: to thine own self be true.”
Polonius frames integrity as consistency between inward conviction and outward conduct, although the advice belongs to a fallible fictional counselor.
Source note: Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3; Polonius gives Laertes this advice before Laertes leaves for France.
“Parting is such sweet sorrow.”
The phrase holds affection and pain together: separation hurts precisely because the relationship being left is valued.
Source note: Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2; Juliet speaks as the lovers part for the night.
“It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”
The metaphor enlarges personal admiration into a whole horizon, presenting beauty as something that changes the scale of the observer’s world.
Source note: Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2; Romeo continues the dawn imagery after seeing Juliet.
“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!”
Romeo’s first reaction to Juliet turns visual beauty into illumination, showing how admiration changes the way the surrounding scene is perceived.
Source note: Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5.
“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?”
Romeo’s question makes Juliet’s appearance seem to transform the night itself, using light as the language of sudden admiration.
Source note: Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2; Romeo sees Juliet at the window.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.”
The line questions whether labels and inherited identities should determine the value or reality of the person beneath them.
Source note: Act 2, Scene 2; Juliet separates Romeo from the social meaning of his family name.
“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!”
The line turns still moonlight into something almost physical and resting, creating beauty through quietness rather than spectacle.
Source note: The Merchant of Venice, Act 5, Scene 1; Lorenzo speaks in the moonlit garden at Belmont.
“If music be the food of love, play on.”
Love is treated as an appetite that can be intensified through beauty, sensation, and repeated emotional stimulation.
Source note: Act 1, Scene 1; Orsino opens the play by comparing music and appetite.
“I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks.”
Sebastian responds to Antonio’s costly loyalty with repeated thanks while also admitting that words alone are an inadequate repayment for practical care.
Source note: Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 3, Project Gutenberg #1526. Sebastian says this to Antonio after Antonio explains that fear for Sebastian’s safety drove him to follow despite the danger of returning to Illyria; it is character dialogue, not Shakespeare autobiography.