William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet, and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth23 April 1564
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.... [W]hat can we bequeath, Save our deposed bodies to the ground?... [N]othing can we call our own, but death... [L]et us sit upon the ground, And tell sad stories of the death of kings:— How some have been depos'd, some slain in war; Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd...
We may outrun By violent swiftness And lose by over-running.
How quickly nature falls into revolt When gold becomes her object! For this the foolish over-careful fathers Have broke their sleep with thoughts, their brains with care, Their bones with industry.
And be these juggling friends no more believ'd, That palter with us in a double sense; That keep the word of promise to our ear And break it to our hope.
Oh! that you could turn your eyes towards the napes of your necks, and make but an interior survey of your good selves.
I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people.
For I am full of spirit and resolve to meet all perils very constantly.
O, what a world of vile ill-favored faults, looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year!
A whoreson jackanapes must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed mine oaths of him and might not spend them at my pleasure. When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths, ha?
Tis not the many oaths that make the truth; But the plain single vow, that is vow'd true.
Tis but a base, ignoble mind That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.
The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree.
Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest ...
For where is any author in the world Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?