To celebrate National Shakespeare Day (April 23) we have created a list of some of his greatest quotes
William Shakespeare may have died more than 400 years ago but his quotes are timeless and still resonate today. Here, to honour the great playwright, we’ve compiled a list of just a few of his most thought-provoking and inspiring quotes which are as relevant today as they were when they were written in the 1600s.
“Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.”
—Escalus in Measure for Measure
“I would give all my fame for a pot of ale, and safety.”
—Boy in Henry V
“I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?”
—Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing
“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.”
—Cassius in Julius Caesar
“Action is eloquence.”
—Volumnia in Coriolanus
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
—Malvolio in Twelfth Night
“Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day.”
—Macbeth in Macbeth
“Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting.”
—Dauphin in Henry V
“The miserable have no other medicine, but only hope.”
—Claudio in Measure for Measure
“The more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly.”
—Touchstone in As You Like It
“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”
—Polonius in Hamlet
