Browse 43 quotations connecting William Shakespeare with Words of Wisdom, 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 Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Julius Caesar. Keeping the work and source note beside each quotation makes differences in setting, speaker and emphasis easier to see.
Sources represented here include Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Julius Caesar.
“Though she be but little, she is fierce.”
Physical size is separated from force of character, giving the line its enduring use as a compact statement of spirited strength.
Source note: Act 3, Scene 2; Helena describes Hermia during the lovers’ quarrel.
“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.
“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”
The line values trustworthy character above possessions or reputation inherited after death.
Source note: All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 3, Scene 5; the line occurs in dialogue that values honest character above material inheritance.
“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.
“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”
Human life is pictured as a fabric woven from favorable and painful threads rather than a story made from only one kind of experience.
Source note: All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 4, Scene 3.
“Sweet are the uses of adversity.”
Adversity is presented as capable of yielding insight or value even when the experience itself is unwelcome.
Source note: As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 1; Duke Senior reflects on what adversity can reveal while living in exile.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
The metaphor treats life as a sequence of roles and stages, inviting reflection on identity, aging, and impermanence.
Source note: As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7; Jaques introduces the famous seven-ages speech by comparing human life with a stage.
“The readiness is all.”
The emphasis is not on controlling every outcome but on meeting what comes with preparedness and acceptance.
Source note: Act 5, Scene 2.
“Brevity is the soul of wit.”
The line praises compression: saying less can sharpen meaning when the words that remain do real work.
Source note: Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2; Polonius says this while promising the King and Queen he will be brief, immediately before continuing at comic length. The dramatic irony is part of the line’s context.
“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.
“To be, or not to be: that is the question.”
The line condenses an existential dilemma into a question about endurance, action, fear, and the unknown consequences of death.
Source note: Act 3, Scene 1; Hamlet weighs existence against suffering and uncertainty.
“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”
Listening broadly while speaking selectively is presented as a practical discipline for judgment, relationships, and self-control.
Source note: Act 1, Scene 3; Polonius advises Laertes before his departure.
“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”
The line leaves room between present identity and future possibility, making it useful for reflection on change and potential.
Source note: Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5; Ophelia speaks during her disrupted state, so the line remains dramatic dialogue rather than Shakespearean autobiography.
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
The line separates events from the judgments people place on them, a useful distinction for thinking about perception and response.
Source note: Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2; Hamlet says this to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern while explaining that Denmark feels like a prison to him. The line is dramatic dialogue, not a detached psychological proposition by Shakespeare.
“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”
Difficulty often feels cumulative: one loss can arrive alongside others, making the burden larger than any isolated event.
Source note: Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5; Claudius describes multiple troubles arriving together after Polonius’s death.
“The better part of valour is discretion.”
Courage is balanced with judgment here: avoiding a needless danger can sometimes be wiser than performing bravery for appearance.
Source note: Act 5, Scene 4; Falstaff reframes survival as a form of judgment.
“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
Status and authority are presented as carrying anxiety and responsibility rather than guaranteeing comfort or peace of mind.
Source note: Act 3, Scene 1; King Henry reflects on the sleepless burden of rule.
“Men at some time are masters of their fates.”
Circumstances matter, but people also have moments when their own decisions meaningfully shape what follows.
Source note: Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2.
“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”
The contrast suggests that repeated fear can make a person suffer imagined losses long before the real event arrives.
Source note: Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 2; Caesar contrasts repeated imagined fear with the single reality of death.
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
The line rejects passive fatalism and places responsibility for circumstances more directly on human decisions, ambition, and action.
Source note: Act 1, Scene 2; Cassius argues that human choices matter more than fate.
“The wheel is come full circle.”
The image describes consequences returning to their starting point and fortunes reversing over time.
Source note: King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3.
“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!”
The image captures the particular hurt of care being answered by ingratitude within a close family bond.
Source note: King Lear, Act 1, Scene 4.
“What’s done cannot be undone.”
Some consequences cannot be reversed, so the practical question becomes how to respond now rather than how to erase the past.
Source note: Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1; Lady Macbeth speaks during the sleepwalking scene while confronting actions that cannot be reversed.
“There’s daggers in men’s smiles.”
Friendly appearance can conceal harmful intent, so trust should consider patterns of conduct rather than expressions alone.
Source note: Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3.
“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o’er-wrought heart and bids it break.”
Putting grief into words can make suffering more shareable; silence may intensify pressure when pain has no form of expression.
Source note: Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3; Malcolm urges Macduff to give grief words after the news of his family’s murder.
“The miserable have no other medicine but only hope.”
When circumstances offer little immediate relief, hope can preserve the possibility of endurance without pretending the pain is gone.
Source note: Measure for Measure, Act 3, Scene 1.
“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”
Doubt becomes harmful when it stops useful action before reality has had a chance to test what might be possible.
Source note: Act 1, Scene 4; Lucio argues against letting fear prevent an attempt.
“The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.”
Preserving some inward freedom after a loss denies the wrongdoer complete control over what the loss becomes.
Source note: Othello, Act 1, Scene 3; the Duke urges Brabantio not to compound an irreversible loss by continuing to feed it with fresh grief.
“To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on.”
Grief over what cannot be changed can become a second injury when it prevents attention to what can still be done.
Source note: Othello, Act 1, Scene 3; the Duke urges Brabantio not to compound an irreversible loss by continuing to feed it with fresh grief.
“O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.”
Jealousy is described as self-consuming because it feeds on suspicion while tormenting the person who carries it.
Source note: Othello, Act 3, Scene 3.
“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”
Time ignored earlier becomes painfully visible later, when opportunities narrow and delay can no longer be recovered.
Source note: Richard II, Act 5, Scene 5.
“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”
Speed without judgment can undermine the very goal a person is pursuing, so patience becomes part of effective action.
Source note: Act 2, Scene 3; Friar Laurence urges Romeo to move with greater care.
“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.
“All that glisters is not gold.”
Appearance can imitate value without possessing it, so the line encourages evidence and discernment before admiration or trust.
Source note: Act 2, Scene 7; the inscription warns against judging by outward appearance.
“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”
Even respected language can be quoted selectively, so a citation should be judged by context and purpose rather than authority alone.
Source note: The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 3.
“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”
Punctuality is treated as prudence: arriving early creates margin, while lateness spends time that cannot be restored.
Source note: The Merry Wives of Windsor; a comic line about timing and punctuality.
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
The dramatic line relocates evil from an imagined elsewhere into immediate human experience and frightening events in the present.
Source note: Act 1, Scene 2; Ferdinand describes the terror surrounding the shipwreck.
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
The line emphasizes impermanence and the dreamlike brevity of human life.
Source note: Act 4, Scene 1.
“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”
Shared human tendencies can connect people across status and difference, even when the behavior being shared is imperfect.
Source note: Troilus and Cressida, Act 3, Scene 3.
“Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.”
Anticipation and active pursuit can carry more energy than possession itself, making the process part of the reward.
Source note: Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 2.
“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.
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.”
The sentence distinguishes inherited status, earned achievement, and unexpected responsibility, making greatness look less like one single path.
Source note: Act 2, Scene 5; the line appears in the forged letter read by Malvolio.