William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon” (or simply “the Bard”). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship.
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.
We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
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. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.
Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.
To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.
Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.
This life, which had been the tomb of his virtue and of his honour, is 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.
It is a wise father that knows his own child.