A list created by: Lee Sonogan
Regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. Before his death in 1616, he had created 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long narrative poems. His plays are performed more often than those of any other playwright and many movies/adaptions have been made with his stories. Known for comedies, history and tragedies, he was able to express many different topics/themes that are still interesting today.
- “For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, action nor utterance, nor the power of speech, to stir men’s blood. I only speak right on. I tell you that which you yourselves do know.”
- “The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.”
- “The circumstances of the world are so variable that an irrevocable purpose or opinion is almost synonymous with a foolish one.”
- “How far that little candle throws his beams!”
- “Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.” – Julius Caesar
- “Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.”
- “Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale.”
- “A wretched soul bruised with adversity,We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;But were we burdened with like weight of pain,As much, or more, we should ourselves complain.”
- “Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action.”
- “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
- “He that stands upon a slippery place, makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up”
- “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.”
- “Listen to many, speak to a few.”
- “Do all men kill the things they do not love?”
- “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
- “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.”
- “My heart is true as steel.”
- “This world to me is like a lasting storm,Whirring me from my friends.”
- “Teach thy necessity to reason thus; There is no virtue like necessity.”
- “I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream.”
- “Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends.”
- “Your tale sir, would cure deafness.”
- “And where two waging fires meet together They do consume the thing that feeds their fury.Though little fire grows great with little wind,Yet extreme gusts will blow out fire and all.”
- “Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.”
- “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact.”
- “Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
- “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”
- “Oft expectation fails, and most oft where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest; and despair most sits.”
- “He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.”
- “A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.”
Macbeth may be my favourite story him. His style and influence is definitely original content that you can clearly see. No wonder people have been making adaptions of his stories for nearly 500 years.
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