All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.
— William ShakespeareMacbeth, Act V, scene i
Use itGS4: guilt of wrongdoing cannot be washed away; conscience as punishment.
Quotes / Thinkers / William Shakespeare
Thinker · 20 quotes
William Shakespeare quotes for UPSC
20 sourced quotes by William Shakespeare on truth & wisdom, ethics & morality, character & virtue, courage, leadership, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.
✓ Attributions checked against Wikiquote's sourced list
If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces.
— William ShakespearePortia, Act I, scene ii
Use itGS4: gap between knowing good and doing good; implementation of ethics.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine ownself be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
— William ShakespearePolonius, Act I, scene iii
Use itGS4: being true to oneself as the root of honesty with others.
Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving.
— William ShakespeareIago, Act II, scene iii
Use itGS4: reputation can be unmerited; value integrity over image.
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.
— William ShakespeareAntony, Act III, scene ii
Use itGS4/Essay: misdeeds outlive the doer while good is forgotten; legacy of actions.
Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
— William ShakespeareCassius, Act I, scene ii
Use itLife/Essay: we shape our fate; don't blame destiny.
Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.
— William ShakespeareCaesar, Act II, scene ii
Use itLife: fear makes cowards suffer repeatedly; the brave face it once.
The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life.
— William ShakespeareFalstaff, Act V, scene iv
Use itGS4/Life: discretion is a part of courage; prudence over recklessness.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
— William ShakespeareKing Henry, Act III, scene i
Use itGS4/Essay: power brings burden and anxiety of responsibility.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
— William ShakespearePolonius, Act I, scene iii
Use itInterview/GS4: listen to all, speak sparingly; reserve judgement.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet.
— William ShakespeareJuliet, Act II, scene ii
Use itEssay on identity: substance matters more than labels or names.
All that glisters is not gold.
— William ShakespearePrince of Morocco, reading Portia's note, Act II, scene vii; this is the source of the popular paraphrase "."
Use itLife/Essay: appearances deceive; look beyond glitter.
'The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.'
— William ShakespeareTouchstone, Act V, scene i
Use itInterview: humility; the wise know their limits.
Time's glory is to calm contending kings, To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light.
— William ShakespeareThe Rape of Lucrece
Use itEssay: time eventually exposes falsehood and reveals truth.
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.
— William ShakespeareMalvolio, Act II, scene v
Use itEssay on greatness; it can be inherited, earned, or thrust upon you.
What cannot be eschewed must be embraced
— William Shakespeare"The Merry Wives of Windsor", Act 5
Use itLife: accept and embrace what cannot be avoided.
Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
— William ShakespeareMacbeth, Act I, scene iii
Use itLife: on a hard day; even the roughest day passes.
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.
— William ShakespeareJaques, Act II, scene vii
Use itLife/Essay: we play many roles through life's stages.
How use doth breed a habit in a man!
— William ShakespeareValentine, Act V, scene iv
Use itLife/GS4: repeated practice turns into habit; shape habits deliberately.
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
— William ShakespeareHamlet, Act II, scene ii
Use itLife/Essay: perception shapes reality; attitude determines experience.