William Shakespeare

Greatest playwright in English

Early Modern influential 138 sayings

Sayings by William Shakespeare

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

1596 — From A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 1, Scene 1
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Brevity is the soul of wit.

1601 — From Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

To be, or not to be: that is the question.

1601 — From Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The quality of mercy is not strained.

1598 — From The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I am sick when I do look on thee.

c. 1595-1596 — A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act 2, scene 1)
Humorous Unverifiable

Away thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant.

c. 1590-1592 — Taming of the Shrew (Act 4, scene 3)
Humorous Unverifiable

You have a February face, so full of frost, of storm and cloudiness.

c. 1598-1599 — Much Ado About Nothing (Act 5, scene 4)
Humorous Unverifiable

Out of my sight! Thou dost infect my eyes.

c. 1605-1608 — Various plays, e.g., Coriolanus (Act 2, Scene 2)
Humorous Confirmed

What, you egg?

c. 1606 — Macbeth (Act 4, scene 2)
Humorous Unverifiable

Thou art a very ragged wart.

c. 1597-1599 — Henry IV, Part 2 (Act 3, scene 2)
Humorous Unverifiable

How now, thou crusty batch of nature! What's the news?

c. 1602 — Troilus and Cressida (Act 5, scene 1)
Humorous Unverifiable

Away, you mouldy rogue, away!

c. 1597-1599 — Henry IV, Part 2 (Act 2, scene 2)
Humorous Unverifiable

A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.

c. 1596-1597 — Henry IV, Part 1 (Falstaff, describing Hotspur)
Humorous Unverifiable

Away, you starvelling, you elf-skin, you dried neat's-tongue, bull's-pizzle, you stock-fish!

c. 1596-1597 — Henry IV, Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4, Falstaff to Prince Hal)
Humorous Unverifiable

Away, you three-inch fool!

c. 1594 — The Comedy of Errors (Act 3, Scene 2)
Humorous Confirmed

Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows.

c. 1602 — Troilus and Cressida (Thersites to Ajax)
Humorous Unverifiable

There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune.

c. 1596-1597 — Henry IV, Part 1 (Falstaff)
Humorous Unverifiable

I do desire we may be better strangers.

c. 1599-1600 — As You Like It (Act 3, Scene 2)
Humorous Confirmed

I do wish thou wert a dog, that I might love thee something.

c. 1605-1608 — Timon of Athens (Act 4, Scene 3)
Humorous Unverifiable

I wonder that you will still be talking. Nobody marks you.

c. 1598-1599 — Much Ado About Nothing (Beatrice to Benedick)
Humorous Unverifiable