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Love30 quotes
My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep. The more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite. — William Shakespeare · 1597My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red... I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound. — William Shakespeare · 1609Love comforteth like sunshine after rain. — William Shakespeare · 1593Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. — William Shakespeare · 1600If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die. — William Shakespeare · 1602But miserable most, to love unloved? This you should pity rather than despise. — William Shakespeare · 1599All 30 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 · 1616There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. — William Shakespeare · 1599Time’s the king of men. He’s both their parent, and he is their grave, And gives them what he will, not what they crave. — William Shakespeare · 1608And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe, And then from hour to hour we rot and rot, And thereby hangs a tale. — William Shakespeare · 1616The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. — William Shakespeare · 1616Every man bears the whole stamp of the human condition. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580All 15 quotes →
Death11 quotes
Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. — William Shakespeare · 1599Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other. — Francis Bacon · 1625Is it sin to rush into the secret house of death Ere death dare come to us? — William Shakespeare · 1607Age will not be defied. — Francis Bacon · 1625He that dies pays all debts. — William Shakespeare · 1616It comes equally to us all, and makes us all equal. — John Donne · 1621All 11 quotes →
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever, One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never. — William Shakespeare · 1600Flesh of flesh, Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe. — John Milton · 1667He is the half part of a blessèd man, Left to be finishèd by such as she, And she a fair divided excellence, Whose fullness of perfection lies in him. — William Shakespeare · 1616What thou art is mine; Our state cannot be severed, we are one, One flesh; to lose thee were to lose my self. — John Milton · 1667However we do praise ourselves, Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn, Than women’s are. — William Shakespeare · 1602Though men can cover crimes with bold stern looks, Poor women's faces are their own faults' books. — William Shakespeare · 1594All 7 quotes →
Love comforteth like sunshine after rain. — William Shakespeare · 1593Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. — William Shakespeare · 1609Love surfeits not, Lust like a glutton dies. Love is all truth, Lust full of forgèd lies. — William Shakespeare · 1593The course of true love never did run smooth. — William Shakespeare · 1599Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds Or bends with the remover to remove. O, no, it is an ever-fixed mark. — William Shakespeare · 1609Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. — William Shakespeare · 1599All 7 quotes →
Time7 quotes
The whirligig of time brings in his revenges. — William Shakespeare · 1602Time’s the king of men. He’s both their parent, and he is their grave, And gives them what he will, not what they crave. — William Shakespeare · 1608I wasted time, and now doth time waste me. — William Shakespeare · 1595Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end. — William Shakespeare · 1609Time, the subtle thief of youth. — John Milton · 1645Nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defense. — William Shakespeare · 1609All 7 quotes →
Women7 quotes
O fairest of Creation, last and best Of all God's works. — John Milton · 1667Frailty, thy name is woman! — William Shakespeare · 1616Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. — William Shakespeare · 1607Though she be but little, she is fierce. — William Shakespeare · 1599She's beautiful, and therefore to be wooed; She is a woman, therefore to be won. — William Shakespeare · 1592From women’s eyes this doctrine I derive. They sparkle still the right Promethean fire. They are the books, the arts, the academes That show, contain, and nourish all the world. — William Shakespeare · 1597All 7 quotes →
I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, Who art as black as hell, as dark as night. — William Shakespeare · 1609Was ever book containing such vile matter So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell In such a gorgeous palace! — William Shakespeare · 1597He takes false shadows for true substances. — William Shakespeare · 1594All that glisters is not gold— Often have you heard that told. — William Shakespeare · 1598Ornament is but the guilèd shore To a most dangerous sea. — William Shakespeare · 1598O, what may man within him hide, Though angel on the outward side! — William Shakespeare · 1616
Beauty6 quotes
Was ever book containing such vile matter So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell In such a gorgeous palace! — William Shakespeare · 1597Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies. — John Donne · 1631No spring, nor summer beauty hath such grace As I have seen in one autumnal face. — John Donne · 1631If it be true that any beautiful thing raises the pure and just desire of man from earth to God, the eternal fount of all, such I believe my love. — Michelangelo · 1525Beauty itself doth of itself persuade The eyes of men without an orator. — William Shakespeare · 1594Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power, After offence returning, to regain Love once possessed. — John Milton · 1671
Fate6 quotes
Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. — William Shakespeare · 1599Time’s the king of men. He’s both their parent, and he is their grave, And gives them what he will, not what they crave. — William Shakespeare · 1608Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie Which we ascribe to heaven. — William Shakespeare · 1616There'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 · 1616What Fates impose, that men must needs abide; It boots not to resist both wind and tide. — William Shakespeare · 1595
Fortune6 quotes
There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. — William Shakespeare · 1599Fortune, that arrant whore, Ne’er turns the key to th’ poor. — William Shakespeare · 1606O Fortune, Fortune, all men call thee fickle. — William Shakespeare · 1597Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered. — William Shakespeare · 1611The cause of the bad and of the good fortune of men is the way in which their method of working fits the times. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531Though Fortune’s malice overthrow my state, My mind exceeds the compass of her wheel. — William Shakespeare · 1595
Human nature6 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 · 1616Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasions for it. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531So long as the great majority of men are not deprived of either property or honour, they are satisfied. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531They that deny a God destroy a man's nobility, for certainly man is of a kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. — Francis Bacon · 1625What is a man If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more. — William Shakespeare · 1616
The whirligig of time brings in his revenges. — William Shakespeare · 1602Time’s the king of men. He’s both their parent, and he is their grave, And gives them what he will, not what they crave. — William Shakespeare · 1608I wasted time, and now doth time waste me. — William Shakespeare · 1595Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end. — William Shakespeare · 1609Time, the subtle thief of youth. — John Milton · 1645Nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defense. — William Shakespeare · 1609
Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasions for it. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms; and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532He [the prince] holds to what is right when he can but knows how to do wrong when he must. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live; that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin that his preservation. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Anyone who campaigns for public office becomes disqualified for holding any office at all. — Thomas More · 1516
Suffering6 quotes
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. — William Shakespeare · 1616When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions. — William Shakespeare · 1616It easeth some, though none it ever cur'd, To think their dolour others have endur'd. — William Shakespeare · 1594Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopped, Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is. — William Shakespeare · 1594Short time seems long in sorrow's sharp sustaining. — William Shakespeare · 1594For there was never yet philosopher That could endure the toothache patiently. — William Shakespeare · 1600
Aging5 quotes
You and I are past our dancing days. — William Shakespeare · 1597And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe, And then from hour to hour we rot and rot, And thereby hangs a tale. — William Shakespeare · 1616Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. — William Shakespeare · 1607Age will not be defied. — Francis Bacon · 1625No spring, nor summer beauty hath such grace As I have seen in one autumnal face. — John Donne · 1631
Friendship5 quotes
If I am pressed to say why I loved him, I feel it can only be explained by replying: "Because it was he; because it was me." — Michel de Montaigne · 1580Fair face show friends When riches do abound: Come time of proof, Farewell, they must away. — Barnabe Googe · 1563Friendship is constant in all other things Save in the office and affairs of love. — William Shakespeare · 1600Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend. — William Shakespeare · 1616Of all the heavenly gifts that mortal men commend, What trusty treasure in the world can countervail a friend? — Nicholas Grimald · 1557
Honesty5 quotes
While you live, tell truth and shame the devil! — William Shakespeare · 1597Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance. — William Shakespeare · 1611Be it art or hap, He hath spoken true. — William Shakespeare · 1607Against my soul's pure truth why labor you To make it wander in an unknown field? — William Shakespeare · 1594Men should be what they seem. — William Shakespeare · 1604
I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, Who art as black as hell, as dark as night. — William Shakespeare · 1609Was ever book containing such vile matter So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell In such a gorgeous palace! — William Shakespeare · 1597All that glisters is not gold— Often have you heard that told. — William Shakespeare · 1598Ornament is but the guilèd shore To a most dangerous sea. — William Shakespeare · 1598O, what may man within him hide, Though angel on the outward side! — William Shakespeare · 1616
A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532They that deny a God destroy a man's nobility, for certainly man is of a kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. — Francis Bacon · 1625The sense of death is most in apprehension, And the poor beetle that we tread upon In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great As when a giant dies. — 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 · 1616Man and animal are merely a passage and channel for food, a tomb for other animals, a haven for the dead, giving life by the death of others, a coffer full of corruption. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1508
Marriage5 quotes
It happens as with the cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580For what is wedlock forced but a hell, An age of discord and continual strife? Whereas the contrary bringeth bliss And is a pattern of celestial peace. — William Shakespeare · 1592If there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have more occasion to know one another...upon familiarity will grow more content. — William Shakespeare · 1602He was reputed one of the wise men that made answer to the question when a man should marry, "A young man not yet, an elder man not at all." — Francis Bacon · 1625Hasty marriage seldom proveth well. — William Shakespeare · 1595
Mortality5 quotes
Time’s the king of men. He’s both their parent, and he is their grave, And gives them what he will, not what they crave. — William Shakespeare · 1608And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe, And then from hour to hour we rot and rot, And thereby hangs a tale. — William Shakespeare · 1616The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. — William Shakespeare · 1616Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end. — William Shakespeare · 1609Men must endure Their going hence even as their coming hither. Ripeness is all. — William Shakespeare · 1606
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever, One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never. — William Shakespeare · 1600He is the half part of a blessèd man, Left to be finishèd by such as she, And she a fair divided excellence, Whose fullness of perfection lies in him. — William Shakespeare · 1616If there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have more occasion to know one another...upon familiarity will grow more content. — William Shakespeare · 1602When love begins to sicken and decay It useth an enforcèd ceremony. — William Shakespeare · 1599And ruined love, when it is built anew, Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater. — William Shakespeare · 1609
Suicide5 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 · 1616Is it sin to rush into the secret house of death Ere death dare come to us? — William Shakespeare · 1607Against self-slaughter There is a prohibition so divine That cravens my weak hand. — William Shakespeare · 1611So every bondman in his own hand bears The power to cancel his captivity. — William Shakespeare · 1599
Temptation5 quotes
The flow'ry way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire. — William Shakespeare · 1616Against my soul's pure truth why labor you To make it wander in an unknown field? — William Shakespeare · 1594How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds Makes deeds ill done! — William Shakespeare · 1616Ornament is but the guilèd shore To a most dangerous sea. — William Shakespeare · 1598The primrose way to th' everlasting bonfire. — William Shakespeare · 1616
Thoughts5 quotes
O, who can hold a fire in his hand By thinking on the frosty Caucasus? Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite By bare imagination of a feast? Or wallow naked in December snow By thinking on fantastic summer’s heat? — William Shakespeare · 1595There is no man, good as he may be, who, if all his thoughts and actions were submitted to the scrutiny of the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. — William Shakespeare · 1616My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel. — William Shakespeare · 1592Make not your thoughts your prisons. — William Shakespeare · 1607
Truth5 quotes
While you live, tell truth and shame the devil! — William Shakespeare · 1597Be it art or hap, He hath spoken true. — William Shakespeare · 1607Against my soul's pure truth why labor you To make it wander in an unknown field? — William Shakespeare · 1594Though thou speakest truth, Methinks thou speak'st not well. — William Shakespeare · 1616Truth will come to light. — William Shakespeare · 1598
Virtue5 quotes
I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat. — John Milton · 1644Virtue shuns ease as a companion... It demands a rough and thorny path. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580Virtue is choked with foul ambition. — William Shakespeare · 1594Most men admire Virtue who follow not her lore. — John Milton · 1671There is no vice so simple but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts. — William Shakespeare · 1598
Boast not of what thou would'st have done, but do What then thou would'st. — John Milton · 1671Words pay no debts. — William Shakespeare · 1603Talkers are no good doers. Be assured We go to use our hands and not our tongues. — William Shakespeare · 1597Tis well said again, And 'tis a kind of good deed to say well. And yet words are no deeds. — William Shakespeare · 1613Saying is one thing and doing is another. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580
Yin and yang5 quotes
I find that the best goodness I have has some tincture of vice. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580Thus sometimes hath the brightest day a cloud, And after summer evermore succeeds Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold; So cares and joys abound, as seasons fleet. — William Shakespeare · 1594There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distill it out. — William Shakespeare · 1599The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together. — William Shakespeare · 1616No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. — William Shakespeare · 1597