William Shakespeare; King of the One Liners

All he did was string together a lot of old, well known quotations. - H.L. Mencken on Shakespeare

William Shakespeare quotes such as "To be, or not to be" and "Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?" form some of most celebrated lines in the history of English literature. 
Others, the origins of which are not as well known  such as, "To thine own self be true", "I'll not budge an inch", "We have seen better days", and "It's Greek to me" are bon mots and pearls of wisdom in modern day speech. 

Here are a few of Bill The Quill's greatest hits. 

Sonnet 18

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date".

Sonnet 18 recited by David Tenant

Hamlet

To be, or not to be: that is the question". - (Act III, Scene I).

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry". - (Act I, Scene III).

"This above all: to thine own self be true". - (Act I, Scene III).

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.". - (Act II, Scene II).

"That it should come to this!". - (Act I, Scene II).

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so". - (Act II, Scene II).

"What a piece of work is man!  How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty!  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! ". - (Act II, Scene II).

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks". - (Act III, Scene II).

"In my mind's eye". - (Act I, Scene II).

"A little more than kin, and less than kind". - (Act I, Scene II).

"The play 's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king". - (Act II, Scene II).

"And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man". - (Act I, Scene III)."

“This is the very ecstasy of love". - (Act II, Scene I).

"Brevity is the soul of wit". - (Act II, Scene II).

"Doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love". - (Act II, Scene II).

"Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind". - (Act III, Scene I).

"Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?" - (Act III, Scene II).

"I will speak daggers to her, but use none". - (Act III, Scene II).

"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions". - (Act IV, Scene V).

Laurence Olivier To Be Or Not To Be

soliloquy 1948 

As You Like It

"All the world 's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts" - (Act II, Scene VII).

"I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it" - (Act II, Scene IV).

"How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes!" - (Act V, Scene II).

"Blow, blow, thou winter wind!  Thou art not so unkind as man's ingratitude".(Act II, Scene VII).

"True is it that we have seen better days". - (Act II, Scene VII).

"For ever and a day". - (Act IV, Scene I).

"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool". - (Act V, Scene I).

Seven Ages of Man - Richard Pasco - 1978

King Richard II

“For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings;

Act 3, sc. II

“Keep time! How sour sweet music is when time is broke and no proportion kept! So is it in the music of men's lives. I wasted time and now doth time waste me.”

 “No matter where; of comfort no man speak: Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;

Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth”

“You may my glories and my state depose, But not my griefs; still am I king of those.”

“Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day.”

“On this side my hand, and on that side yours. Now is this golden crown like a deep well

That owes two buckets, filling one another, The emptier ever dancing in the air,

The other down, unseen and full of water: That bucket down and full of tears am I,

Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.”

“I'll give my jewels for a set of beads, My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,

My gay apparel for an almsman's gown, My figured goblets for a dish of wood,

My scepter for a palmer's walking staff, My subjects for a pair of carved saints

and my large kingdom for a little grave.”

“My dear, dear Lord, The purest treasure mortal times afford

Is spotless reputation; that away Men are but gilded loan or painted clay...

Mine honor is my life; both grow in one;

Take honor from me, and my life is done.”

Thus play I in one person many people, And none contented:

sometimes am I king; Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar,

And so I am: then crushing penury Persuades me I was better when a king;

Then am I king'd again: and by and by Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke,

And straight am nothing: but whate'er I be,

Nor I nor any man that but man is With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased

With being nothing.”

Give me that glass and therein will I read.

No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck

So many blows upon this face of mine

And made no deeper wounds?

O flattering glass,

Like to my followers in prosperity

Thou dost beguile me!”

“O that I were a mockery king of snow

Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke

To melt myself away in water drops!”

Each substance of a grief has twenty shadows.”

“Discharge my followers; let them hence away,

From Richard's night to Bolingbrooke's fair day.”

“I hate the murderer, love him murdered.”

“Mine honor is my life; both grow in one.

Take honor from me, and my life is done.”

Act IV, Sc. I, The Deposition Scene David Tennant as Richard, Royal Shakespeare Company 2013

King Richard III

"Now is the winter of our discontent". - (Act I, Scene I).

"A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!". - (Act V, Scene IV).

"Conscience is but a word that cowards use, devised at first to keep the strong in awe". - (Act V, Scene III).

"So wise so young, they say, do never live long". - (Act III, Scene I).

"Off with his head!" - (Act III, Scene IV).

"An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told". - (Act IV, Scene IV).

"The king's name is a tower of strength". - (Act V, Scene III).

"The world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch". - (Act I, Scene III).

Now is the Winter of Our Discontent - Laurence Olivier

Romeo and Juliet

"O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?". - (Act II, Scene II).

"It is the east, and Juliet is the sun" . - (Act II, Scene II).

"Good Night, Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow." - (Act II, Scene II).

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". - (Act II, Scene II).

"Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast". - (Act II, Scene III).

"Tempt not a desperate man". - (Act V, Scene III).

"For you and I are past our dancing days" . - (Act I, Scene V).

"O! she doth teach the torches to burn bright". - (Act I, Scene V).

"It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear" . - (Act I, Scene V).

"See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!". - (Act II, Scene II).

"Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty". - (Act IV, Scene II).

 Nina Rota's theme to Romeo and Juliet

Balcony theme from Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film

The Merchant of Venice

"But love is blind, and lovers cannot see".

"If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?". - (Act III, Scene I).

"The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose". - (Act I, Scene III).

"I like not fair terms and a villain's mind". - (Act I, Scene III).

"Hath Not a Jew Eyes?" - Al Pacino as Shylock

The Merry Wives of Windsor

"Why, then the world 's mine oyster" - (Act II, Scene II).

"This is the short and the long of it". - (Act II, Scene II).

"I cannot tell what the dickens his name is". - (Act III, Scene II).

"As good luck would have it". - (Act III, Scene V).

Merry Wives of Windsor - Globe Theater 2004

Measure for Measure

"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt". - (Act I, Scene IV).

"Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall". - (Act II, Scene I).

"The miserable have no other medicine but only hope". - (Act III, Scene I).

David Tennant as Angelo in Measure for Measure 

King Henry IV, Part I

"He will give the devil his due". - (Act I, Scene II).

"The better part of valour is discretion". - (Act V, Scene IV).

King Henry IV, Part II

"He hath eaten me out of house and home". - (Act II, Scene I).

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown". - (Act III, Scene I).

"A man can die but once". - (Act III, Scene II).

"I do now remember the poor creature, small beer". - (Act II, Scene II).

"We have heard the chimes at midnight". - (Act III, Scene II)

King Henry IV, Part III

"The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on". - (Act II, Scene II).

"Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; The thief doth fear each bush an officer". - (Act V, Scene VI)

King Henry V
"O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention!" (Prologue)

"Men of few words are the best men." (Act III, Scene II)

"Even at the turning o' the tide." (Act II. Scene III)

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close the wall up with our English dead! In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility; But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger: Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. (Act III, Scene I)

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers." (Act IV, Scene III). 

St. Crispin's Day Speech - Kenneth Branagh as King Henry

King Henry the Sixth, Part I

"Delays have dangerous ends". - (Act III, Scene II).

"Of all base passions, fear is the most accursed". - (Act V, Scene II).

King Henry the Sixth, Part II

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". - (Act IV, Scene II).

"Small things make base men proud". - (Act IV, Scene I).

"True nobility is exempt from fear". - (Act IV, Scene I).

King Henry the Sixth, Part III

"Having nothing, nothing can he lose".- (Act III, Scene III).

Taming of the Shrew

"I 'll not budge an inch". - (Prologue, Scene I).

Timon of Athens

"We have seen better days". - (Act IV, Scene II).

 Julius Caesar

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him". - (Act III, Scene II).

"But, for my own part, it was Greek to me". - (Act I, Scene II).

"A dish fit for the gods". - (Act II, Scene I).

"Cry "Havoc," and let slip the dogs of war". - (Act III, Scene I).

"Et tu, Brute!" - (Act III, Scene I).

"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". - (Act I, Scene II).

"Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more". - (Act III, Scene II).

"Beware the ides of March". - (Act I, Scene II).

"When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff". - (Act III, Scene II).

"Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous". (Act I, Scene II).

"For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all, all honourable men". - (Act III, Scene II).

"As he was valiant, I honor him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him" . - (Act III, Scene II).

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. (Act II, Scene II).

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come". - (Act II, Scene II).

Mark Antony's Speech, "Brutus is an honorable man" -

Marlon Brando

Macbeth

"There 's daggers in men's smiles". - (Act II, Scene III).

"What 's done is done".- (Act III, Scene II).

"I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none". - (Act I, Scene VII).

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair". - (Act I, Scene I).

"I bear a charmed life". - (Act V, Scene VIII).

"Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness." - (Act I, Scene V).

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red" - (Act II, Scene II).

"Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble." - (Act IV, Scene I).

"Out, damned spot! out, I say!" - (Act V, Scene I)..

"All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." - (Act V, Scene I).

"When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain? When the hurlyburly 's done,

When the battle 's lost and won". - (Act I, Scene I).

"Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it; he died as one that had been studied in his death to throw away the dearest thing he owed, as 't were a careless trifle". - (Act I, Scene IV).

"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under 't." - (Act I, Scene V).

"I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, and falls on the other." - (Act I, Scene VII).

"Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?" - (Act II, Scene I).

"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." - (Act V, Scene V).

King Lear

"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!" - (Act I, Scene IV).

"I am a man more sinned against than sinning". - (Act III, Scene II).

"My love's more richer than my tongue". - (Act I, Scene I).

"Nothing will come of nothing." - (Act I, Scene I).

"Have more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest, lend less than thou owest". - (Act I, Scene IV).

"The worst is not, So long as we can say, 'This is the worst.' " . - (Act IV, Scene I)

"Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.   
The weight of this sad time we must obey;  

The oldest hath borne most: we that are young,

Shall never see so much, nor live so long. (Act V; sc. III)

Paul Scofield as King Lear directed by Peter Brook 1971

Regan and Goneril turn Lear away.

Othello

"‘T’is neither here nor there." - (Act IV, Scene III).

"I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at". - (Act I, Scene I).

"To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on". - (Act I, Scene III).

"The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief". - (Act I, Scene III).

Antony and Cleopatra

"My salad days, when I was green in judgment." - (Act I, Scene V).

Cymbeline

"The game is up." - (Act III, Scene III).

"I have not slept one wink.". - (Act III, Scene III).

Twelfth Night

"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them". - (Act II, Scene V).

"Love sought is good, but giv'n unsought is better" . - (Act III, Scene I).

The Tempest

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on, rounded with a little sleep".

King Henry the Fifth

"Men of few words are the best men" . - (Act III, Scene II).

A Midsummer Night's Dream

"The course of true love never did run smooth". - (Act I, Scene I).

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind". - (Act I, Scene I).

Much Ado About Nothing

I can see he's not in your good books,' said the messenger. 'No, and if he were I would burn my library.” Act I, scene I.

"Everyone can master a grief but he that has it". - (Act III, Scene II).

Titus Andronicus

"These words are razors to my wounded heart". - (Act I, Scene I).

The Winter's Tale

"What 's gone and what 's past help should be past grief" . - (Act III, Scene II).

"You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely". - (Act I, Scene I).

Taming of the Shrew

"Out of the jaws of death". - (Act III, Scene IV).

"Thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges". - (Act V, Scene I).

"For the rain it raineth every day". - (Act V, Scene I).

Troilus and Cressida

"The common curse of mankind, - folly and ignorance". - (Act II, Scene III).

Coriolanus

"Nature teaches beasts to know their friends". - (Act II, Scene I).