As an English Major, I spend countless hours reading the work of William Shakespeare. In high-school, this was a torturous activity. However, I am now dying to take a Shakespeare class, because being able to read Shakespeare is like uncovering a secret code. His words are so elegant and beautiful. A lot of terms we say today came from Shakespeare himself. If you're like me, you probably have several quotes from Shakespeare's works that have stuck with you. Here of some of my favorites:
1. "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid blind."
Ah, "A Midsummer Nights Dream." I love this, because it basically says, love is blind, but at the same time says, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
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2. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
Whenever I hear this, I first picture Anne Hathaway in Princess Diaries learning to be royal. Anyone else? Jokes aside, this quote from "Romeo and Juliet" is simply beautiful.
3. "We know what we are, but know not what we may be."
This quote is from "Hamlet," my favorite of Shakespeare's works. I think of this quote often when I think about my future, and who I want to be. As we grow older, we know who we are, but we don't know who we will become.
4. "Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt."
"Measure for Measure." When we have doubts and anxiety, it prevents us from doing thing things that could make us happy.
5. "Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day."
Whatever happens in life, each bad day eventually comes to an end. Each new day is a new beginning. This quote is from "Macbeth."
6. "I am the one who loved not wisely, but too well."
"Othello." Since we are all fools in love, we can not love well, or we are not wise.
7. "If music be the food of love, play on."
In order to cure a forbidden love, you must fill the need for it. Just like food cures hunger, music cures love. This quote is from "Twelfth Night."
8. "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
I can't help but pull quotes from "Hamlet" again. There are no good and bad events in life, it is our perception of them that distinguishes what they are.
9. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate..."
Sonnet 18, my favorite. Here, Shakespeare is saying that his love is hot like a summers day.
10. "Better three hours too soon than a minute too late."
This is how we should all live our lives. "The Merry Wives of Windsor."
11. "To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
If you are honest, you will be someone that can be trusted. "Hamlet," of course.
12. "A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."
This quote is from "As You Like It." I love it, because Shakespeare always overlaps being a fool with love, and being wise is to be alone. We are all fools in love.
