The Quotes canon
Sourced and curated.
Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Fate2 quotes
There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will. — William Shakespeare · 1616Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. — William Shakespeare · 1616Human nature2 quotes
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, 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? — William Shakespeare · 1616What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more. — William Shakespeare · 1616Suicide2 quotes
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. To die, to sleep—
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep—
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. — William Shakespeare · 1616O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God, God,
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world! — William Shakespeare · 1616The afterlife2 quotes
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. To die, to sleep—
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep—
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. — William Shakespeare · 1616The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of? — William Shakespeare · 1616Circle of life1 quote
A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. — William Shakespeare · 1616Cruelty1 quote
I must be cruel only to be kind. — William Shakespeare · 1616Custom and convention1 quote
But, to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honored in the breach than the observance. — William Shakespeare · 1616Death1 quote
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of? — William Shakespeare · 1616End justifies the means1 quote
I must be cruel only to be kind. — William Shakespeare · 1616Free will1 quote
There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will. — William Shakespeare · 1616Hopelessness and despair1 quote
O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God, God,
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world! — William Shakespeare · 1616Kindness1 quote
I must be cruel only to be kind. — William Shakespeare · 1616Knowledge1 quote
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. — William Shakespeare · 1616Limits of knowledge1 quote
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. — William Shakespeare · 1616Man1 quote
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, 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? — William Shakespeare · 1616Man and animals1 quote
What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more. — William Shakespeare · 1616Moral relativism1 quote
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. — William Shakespeare · 1616Moral theory1 quote
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. — William Shakespeare · 1616Morality1 quote
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. — William Shakespeare · 1616Mystery of death1 quote
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of? — William Shakespeare · 1616Over it1 quote
O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God, God,
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world! — William Shakespeare · 1616Power of thought1 quote
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. — William Shakespeare · 1616Purpose of life1 quote
What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more. — William Shakespeare · 1616Reason1 quote
Sure He that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused. — William Shakespeare · 1616The human condition1 quote
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, 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? — William Shakespeare · 1616Thoughts1 quote
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. — William Shakespeare · 1616Women1 quote
Frailty, thy name is woman! — William Shakespeare · 1616