14 Shakespeare Quotes to Celebrate the Birth of a Literary Genius

Shakespeare's birthday is right around the corner and what better way to celebrate the birth of this literary genius than with some thought-provoking and soul-stirring Shakespeare quotes? For all of you Shakespeare fans out there, these 14 quotes from some of his most famous works go out to you...

1. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

2. "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, his acts being seven ages."

3. "To be, or not to be, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,or to take arms against a sea of troubles."

4. "What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable. In action, how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!"

5. "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorr'd in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it."

6. "Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once."

7. "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

8. "Why then the world's mine oyster, which I with sword will open."

9. "All that glisters is not gold, often have you heard that told. Many a man his life hath sold, but my outside to behold gilded tombs do worms enfold."

10. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."

11. "The course of true love never did run smooth."

12. "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones -- so let it be with Caesar."

13. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

14. "Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it promises; and oft it hits here hope is coldest, and despair most fits."

It takes a cultured and educated individual to appreciate the works of Shakespeare. As we celebrate the anniversary of his birth this month, let these 14 Shakespeare quotes serve as a remembrance of how brilliant his works and his imagination really were.

About the Author

For more famous Shakespeare quotes, check out the popular famous quotes section of Famous-Quotes-And-Quotations.com, a website that specializes in 'Top 10' lists of quotations in dozens of categories.

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