In celebration of National Shakespeare Day (which happens every 23rd of April), here are some Shakespeare quotes you can use in everyday life. Post them on your social media, memorise them out loud, and drop them here and there to impress your friends.
When you’re facing challenges in your romantic relationship:
“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
—A Midsummer Night’s Dream
When you feel like you’re about to lose it:
“If I be waspish, best beware of my sting.”
—As You Like It
When you are cooking in the kitchen, and the pot is taking too long to boil:
“Double double, toil and trouble:
—Macbeth
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”
When you want to leave early for an appointment, a meeting, or a flight:
“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”
—The Merry Wives of Windsor
When someone wants to change something that doesn’t need to be changed:
“Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.”
—King Lear
When you and your friend group (of three pax, no more, no less), are about to part ways:
“When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?”
—Macbeth
When someone questions the self-care you do:
“Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting.”
—Henry V
When you’re standing at a crossroads and don’t know what to do:
“This above all: to thine own self be true.”
—Hamlet
When you visit IKEA for the first time:
“I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.”
—As You Like It
When you sense something foreboding is about to happen:
“By the pricking of my thumbs,
—Macbeth
Something wicked this way comes.”
When you want to invite friends to your home:
“Good company, good wine, good welcome can make good people.”
—Henry VIII
When you’re facing impostor syndrome:
“Our doubts are traitors,
—Measure for Measure
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.”
When you find yourself overthinking a great deal:
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
—Hamlet
When someone accuses you of being too ambitious or too successful:
“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
—Twelfth Night
When someone asks you for advice on how to get even with their cheating ex:
“Look like the innocent flower,
—Macbeth
But be the serpent under it.”
When you can’t make up your mind if you should do something or not:
“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.”
—Measure by Measure
When you wonder if you should give advice or not:
“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”
—Hamlet
When your puppy keeps barking a great deal at the neighborhood giant dog:
“Though she be but little, she is fierce.”
—A Midsummer Night’s Dream
When you keep making mistakes:
“The fault…is not in our stars,
—Julius Caesar
But in ourselves.”
When you finally find your favourite productivity app:
“I would not wish any companion in the world but you.”
—The Tempest
When others can’t handle it, but you can:
“That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold:
—Macbeth
What hath quenched them hath given me fire.”
When you are listening to your favourite songs:
“If music be the food of love, play on.”
—Twelfth Night
