20 Thought-Provoking Quotes By William Shakespeare #1

This article contains 20 thought-provoking quotations by the English playwright William Shakespeare.

“The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.” (Julius Caesar)

“The fire i’ the flint shows not till it be struck.” (Timon Of Athens)

“There’s never a one of you but trusts a knave that mightily deceives you.” (Timon Of Athens)

“‘Tis double death to drown in ken of shore.” (Lucrece)

“Some that smile have in their hearts, I fear, millions of mischiefs.” (Julius Caesar)

“All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder.” (The Passionate Pilgrim)

“I rather would entreat thy company
To see the wonders of the world abroad,
Than, living dully sluggardiz’d at home,
Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness.” (The Two Gentlemen Of Verona)

“The rarer action is
In virtue than in vengeance.” (The Tempest)

“There is no darkness but ignorance.” (Twelfth Night)

“Ignorance is the curse of God
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven” (King Henry VI Part 2)

“Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues did not go forth of us, ’twere all alike as if we had them not.” (Measure For Measure)

“Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.” (Measure For Measure)

“And now, instead of bullets wrapp’d in fire,
To make a shaking fever in your walls,
They shoot but calm words, folded up in smoke,
To make a faithless error in your ears.” (King John)

“Man, proud man!
Dress’d in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make the angels weep.” (Measure For Measure)

“In the corrupted currents of this world
Offence’s gilded hand may shove by justice” (Hamlet)

“What is a man, if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more. Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, looking before and after, gave us not that capability and god-like reason to fust in us unused.” (Hamlet)

“I am in this earthly world; where to do harm
Is often laudable, to do good sometime
Accounted dangerous folly.” (Macbeth)

“Let heaven and men and devils, let them all,
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I’ll speak.” (Othello)

“There is no sure foundation set on blood,
No certain life achieved by others’ death.” (King John)

“Trust not the physician; his antidotes are poison.” (Timon Of Athens)

Conclusion

I hope you find these quotations thought-provoking.

You can also download a file containing all 20 of the above images if you want to use them as wallpaper on your computer, for example – just click here.

(This file is a Zip file, so if you don’t have the means to unzip it, you can get a free trial of WinZip here.)

Additional Resources

These are suggestions for those who wish to delve deeper into any of the above:

1. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

PS Thanks to my friend, Alice, for collaborating with me on this article and collating all of the quotations for me.