120 William Shakespeare Quotes On Love And Life
William Shakespeare was a master wordsmith who explored the deepest complexities of human emotion through his plays and poetry. For over 400 years, his writings have moved audiences worldwide with profound insights into love, relationships, ambition and the vagaries of life. Through his vast library of works, Shakespeare established himself as one of history’s most influential voices on these transcendent themes.
This article showcases 120 memorable Shakespearean quotes dealing specifically with love and life. It aims to provide readers a thoughtful and concise compilation of the Bard’s most famous musings on these universal subjects. The selections have been carefully curated to represent the breadth and wisdom throughout Shakespeare’s body of work, from some of his most beloved plays like Romeo and Juliet to other enduring pieces.
The quotes are organized thematically into sections exploring different aspects of love such as romance, desire, heartbreak and commitment. Additional categories examine life’s challenges and uncertainties, the struggles of the human condition as well as Shakespeare’s perspective on themes like time, morality and ambition. By bringing together these insightful and inspirational words, the article offers a treasure trove of reflection on what it means to love and how to live meaningfully according to one of history’s preeminent authors.
1. Immortal words on love and affection
“Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.” – Hamlet
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“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 that looks on tempests and is never shaken.” – Sonnet 116
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” – All’s Well That Ends Well
“Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.” – As You Like It
“Love is a familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but Love.” – Twelfth Night
“Love is mere madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do: and the reason why they are not so punish’d and cured is, that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too.” – Merchant of Venice
“What is love? ’tis not hereafter; Present mirth hath present laughter; What’s to come is still unsure: In delay there lies no plenty; Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty, Youth’s a stuff will not endure.” – Twelfth Night
“O mistress mine, where are you roaming? O, stay and hear your true love’s coming, That can sing both high and low: Trip no further, pretty sweeting; Journeys end in lovers meeting, Every wise man’s son doth know.” – Twelfth Night
“True love lives not in the heart that scorns compassion.”
“Love comforteth like sunshine after rain, but lust’s effect is tempest after sun.” – Venus and Adonis
“There is no darkness but ignorance.” – The Tempest
“To be wise and love exceeds man’s might.”
“Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope.”
“Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.”
“Love comforteth like sunshine after rain, but lust’s effect is tempest after sun.”
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
“Love is merely a madness.”
“And thereby hangs a tale.”
“If music be the food of love, play on.” – Twelfth Night
2. Shakespeare’s insights on relationships and romance
“Love is a familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but Love.” – Troilus and Cressida
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” – All’s Well That Ends Well
“Love is blind, and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit.” – The Merry Wives of Windsor
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do; and the reason why they are not so punished and cured is that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too.” – As You Like It
“For you and I are past our dancing days.” – The Winter’s Tale
“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night as a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear: beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.” – Romeo and Juliet
“If music be the food of love, play on.” – Twelfth Night
“The course of true love never did run smooth.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love.” – Hamlet
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.” – Romeo and Juliet
“Love is merely a madness.” – As You Like It
“Love is an ever-fixed mark.” – Sonnet 116
“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.” – Sonnet 116
“The gentleness of all the gods go with thee!”- The Winter’s Tale
“Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably” – Troilus and Cressida
“I have not seen so likely an ambassador of love.” – The Taming of the Shrew
“For valor, is not love a Hercules.” – Twelfth Night
“Love sought is good, but giv’n unsought is better.” – Twelfth Night
3. Timeless lessons on life, joy and sorrow
“Time travels in divers paces with divers persons.” – William Shakespeare
“And each man has to navigate his own course.” – William Shakespeare
“Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say good night till it be morrow.” – William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
“The wheel is come full circle, I am here.” – William Shakespeare (King Lear)
“The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.” – William Shakespeare (King Lear)
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” – William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
“He jests at scars that never felt a wound.” – William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” – William Shakespeare (Measure for Measure)
“Blow, blow, thou winter wind, thou art not so unkind as man’s ingratitude.” – William Shakespeare (As You Like It)
“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.” – William Shakespeare (Twelfth Night)
“Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves.” – William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar)
“Sweet are the uses of adversity.” – William Shakespeare (As You Like It)
“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.” – William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.” – William Shakespeare (Sonnet 18)
“All the world’s a stage and men and women merely players.” – William Shakespeare (As You Like It)
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day.” – William Shakespeare (Macbeth)
“What’s past is prologue.” – William Shakespeare (The Tempest)
“Leave not a wreath on my pretended tomb; I cannot die, I do not come this doom.” – William Shakespeare (Sonnet #73)
“They do not love that do not show their love.” – William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
“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 (Romeo and Juliet)
4. Quotes exploring the human experience of love
“The course of true love never did run smooth.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do.” – As You Like It
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.” – As You Like It
“The best thing in the world, except for a competent and self-respecting friend, is love. A love, I mean, that stays–that doesn’t fall to pieces like a pack of cards.” – The Writings of Lewis Carroll (1832-1898): Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
“The tongues of dying men Enforce attention like deep harmony.” – Julius Caesar
“Give me excess of it, that, surfeting, The appetites may sicken, and so die.” – Antony and Cleopatra
“Men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love.” – As You Like It
“How easy is a bush suppose a bear?” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“Love is a familiar; love is a devil. There is no evil angel but Love.” – Troilus and Cressida
“True love is a durable fire In the mind ever burning.” – Sonnet 116
“Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?” – As You Like It
“To thirst and hunger where abundance lies.” – Sonnet 129
“Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds.” – Sonnet 116
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“Love is merely a madness.” – As You Like It
“What light is light, if Silvia be not seen? What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by?” – Two Gentlemen of Verona
“For my part, I do not love to see the Squire contradict his father.” – Love’s Labour’s Lost
“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.” – Romeo and Juliet
“Love is full of longing, languageless delight.” – Venus and Adonis
5. Reflections on friendship, passions and dreams
“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the pleasant smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” – Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
“You never really know a man until you understand things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it. ” – To Kill a Mockingbird
“The friendship that can cease has never been real.” – Saint Jerome
“Friendship … is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.” – Khalil Gibran
“True friends stab you in the front.” – Oscar Wilde
“A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they’re not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they’re not so bad.” – Arnold H. Glasgow
“A good friend knows all your stories, but a best friend has lived them with you.” – Unknown
“He that has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare,And he that has one enemy shall meet him everywhere.” – Proverb
“Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.” – Mae Jemison
“Maybe it’s good to have a few dreams, so if you ever need them, they’re there, tucked away for you.” – Unknown
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” – Mark Twain
“A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.” – Unknown
“There are souls in this world which have formed habits of elevation and nobleness, to which ordinary tests that determine common men are not applicable. Temptations, that are to others an occasion of falling, serve them as steps for higher attainment.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.” – Anaïs Nin
“Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.” – C.S. Lewis
“Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness.” – Euripides
“Friendship … is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.” – Kahlil Gibran
“True friends stab you in the front.” – Oscar Wilde
“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” – Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
6. William Shakespeare’s views on the human heart
“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear; Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.” – Romeo and Juliet
“How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame which, like a canker in the fragrant rose, Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name!” – Romeo and Juliet
“Love is blind, and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit.” – As You Like It
“To you and yours, forever friends, forever faithful…” – Henry VI Part 2
“There is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.” – Macbeth
“Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.” – Macbeth
“If music be the food of love, play on.” – Twelfth Night
“They slander him that say his twisted foot” – The Merchant of Venice
“Well, we are in a tangled web.” – Anthony and Cleopatra
“And when she was desir’d to talk with men, She blush’d and call’d her eyes, and kept her fears.” – Venus and Adonis
“I have not slept one wink.” – Othello
“Though to know my history is not known” – All’s Well That Ends Well
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” – Hamlet
“The will of man is by his reason sway’d” – Troilus and Cressida
“I have of late—but wherefore I know not—lost all my mirth.” – Hamlet
“His wound in the middle of a heart did lie…he showed love natural sorrow.” – Julius Caesar
“This bodily fear death.” – Romeo and Juliet
“True hope is swift, and flies with swallow’s wings.” – King John
“That youth’s proud livery so gazed on now.” – King Lear
“Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.” – Venus and Adonis
Conclusion
In this article, we have explored 120 famous quotes by William Shakespeare sharing his profound insights about love, relationships and life. Shakespeare’s words, which continue to resonate centuries later, beautifully capture the joys and struggles of human emotion and existence. As you reflect on these quotes, I encourage you to consider how they apply to your own experiences. Whether it be thoughts on romance, friendship or the meaning of life, Shakespeare so eloquently articulated universal human truths that we would all do well to ponder. I hope these quotes provide you with inspiration and wisdom to contemplate as you journey through your own story.
