WELCOME to @readshakespeare 🎭, where we share William Shakespeare's wise, inspiring, and timeless quotes. We invite you to join us and read the quotes in both the original and modern translations. Find the meanings of S/H/T/C/N/R/P in the description.

Read Shakespeare Team 🎭

"He was not of an age, but for all time!"
Ben Johnson

📸 Photo: Shakespeare's portrait on the title page of The First Folio (1623)

POLONIUS
This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

Translation
Above all, be true to yourself. By doing so, it becomes inevitable—just like night naturally follows day—that you will not be dishonest towards others.

🗡 Hamlet (T)
Act 1, Scene 3

📸 Chess Player by René Maltête

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LUCIO
Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.

Translation
Our doubts are traitors. They make us lose the good outcomes we could often achieve, by making us afraid of trying.

🌀 Measure for Measure (P)
Act 1, Scene 4

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For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings/ That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Translation
Thinking of your sweet love brings such happiness to me that I’d refuse to change my position with kings.
❤️ 29 (S)

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ORSINO
If music be the food of love, play on.
Give me excess of it that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die.

Translation
If music feeds love, then keep playing it. Give me too much of it, so much that it kills my longing for love and makes it disappear.

💍 Twelfth Night (C)
Act 1, Scene 1

🎨 The Concert by Gerrit van Honthorst

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🎼 Film score
Shakespeare in Love

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LORD SAYE
Ignorance is the curse of God,
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

Translation
Lack of knowledge is the curse of God. Knowledge is the wing by which we fly to heaven.

👑 Henry VI, Part 2 (H)
Act 4, Scene 7

📸 Untitled by Elizabeth Sagan

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IMOGEN
Though those that are betray'd do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor stands in worse case of woe.

Translation
Although those who are betrayed feel the infidelity intensly, the betrayer is the one who suffers more.

🔮 Cymbeline (R)
Act 3, Scene 4

🎨 Seized by the Evil Inside by Mahmood Farshchian

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ANTONIO
Experience is by industry achieved, and perfected by the swift course of time.

Translation
Experience is achieved by activity, and perfected by the quick passing of time.

💍 The Two Gentlemen of Verona (C)
Act 1, Scene 3

🎞 Lady Justice by Rafa Grassetti

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FRIAR LAURENCE
Pronounce this sentence then: Women may fall when there’s no strength in men.

Translation
Then repeat this after me: Women will never be faithful when men are so untrustworthy.

🗡 Romeo and Juliet (T)
Act 2, Scene 3

🎨 Treachery by Cristina Bernazzani

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So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see/ So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Translation
As long as there are people on this earth, so long will this poem live on, making you immortal.

❤️ 18 (S)

🎨 Love Time by Cristina Bernazzani

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MARCUS ANDRONICUS
To weep with them that weep doth ease some deal; But sorrow flouted at is double death.

Translation
To cry with those who cry does some help, but to mock great sadness is like experiencing a double loss.

🗡 Titus Andronicus (T)
Act 3, Scene 1

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DON PEDRO
Speak low if you speak love.

Translation
If you'll speak about love, speak softly.

💍 Much Ado About Nothing (C)
Act 2, Scene 1

🎨 Lovers (Osome and Hisamatsu) by Kitagawa Utamaro

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KING RICHARD II
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.

Translation
I have spent time unwisely, and now time is causing me to suffer.

👑 Richard II (H)
Act 5, Scene 5

📸 Sand of Time by Gadion

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

Translation
Horatio, there are more things in this universe than you can possibly imagine with all your learning.

🗡 Hamlet (T)
Act 1, Scene 5

📸 Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope

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JULIET
My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.

Translation
My generosity towards you is as vast as the sea, and my love for you is as deep as the sea. The more I give to you, the more I have, because both my generosity and love are endless.

🗡 Romeo and Juliet (T)
Act 2, scene 2

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FALSTAFF
The better part of valour is discretion.

Translation
The better part of great courage is being careful.

👑 Henry IV, Part 1 (H)
Act 5, Scene 4

🎨 Untitled by Rohan Chakravarty

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MARIANA
No legacy is so rich as honesty.

Translation
There is no inheritance as valuable as being honest.

🌀 All's Well That Ends Well (P)
Act 3, Scene 5

🎨 Honesty Badge by Alex S. Mostov

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Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate!

Translation
Should I compare you to a summer's day? You are more lovely and more moderate!

❤️ 18 (S)

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