William Shakespeare Quotes About Death

• Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Death, Running

  'Julius Caesar' (1599) act 2, sc. 2, l. 30

• Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

• It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.

  William Shakespeare

  Life, Death, Play

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

• Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.

  William Shakespeare

  Success, Death, Veterans Day

  'Julius Caesar' (1599) act 2, sc. 2, l. 30

• 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, And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep No more; and by a sleep, to say we end The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die to sleep, To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there's the rub.

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Suicide, Dream

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 3, sc. 1, l. 56

• To die, to sleep - To sleep, perchance to dream - ay, there's the rub, For in this sleep of death what dreams may come.

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Dream, Halloween

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 3, sc. 1, l. 56

• Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Sea, Arrows

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 3, sc. 1, l. 56

• So wise so young, they say, do never live long.

  William Shakespeare

  Life, Death, Wise

  'Richard III' (1591) act 3, sc. 1, l. 79

• By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death will seize the doctor too.

  William Shakespeare

  Life, Death, Science

  Cymbeline V.5

• To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Life, Death

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

• Fear no more the heat o' th' sun Nor the furious winters' rages; Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages. Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

  William Shakespeare

  Girl, Death, Art

  'Cymbeline' (1609-10) act 4, sc. 2, l. 258

• When he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun.

  William Shakespeare

  Love, Sympathy, Death

  'Romeo And Juliet' (1595) act 3, sc. 2, l. 17

• The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Country, Long Love

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 3, sc. 1, l. 56

• O comfort-killing night, image of hell, Dim register and notary of shame, Black stage for tragedies and murders fell, Vast sin-concealing chaos, nurse of blame!

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Night, Nurse

  William Shakespeare (2006). “The Poems: Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Passionate Pilgrim, A Lover's Complaint”, p.188, Cambridge University Press

• Let me be boiled to death with melancholy.

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Melancholy, Let Me

  William Shakespeare, Thomas BOWDLER (F.R.S.) (1831). “The Family Shakspeare ... By T. Bowdler ... Sixth Edition”, p.72

• For in that sleep of death what dreams may come.

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Dream, Sleep

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 3, sc. 1, l. 56

• Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.

  William Shakespeare

  Life, Death, Nature

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 1, sc. 2, l. 72

• Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day.

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Decay, Woe

  'Richard II' (1595) act 3, sc. 2, l. 103

• Ay, but to die and go we know not where; To lie in cold obstrution and to rot; This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods or to reside In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice; To be imprison'd in the viewless winds, And blown with restless violence round about The pendant world.

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Lying, Ice

  'Measure for Measure' (1604) act 3, sc. 1, l. 114

• To die: - to sleep: No more; and, by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished.

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Sleep, Heart

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 3, sc. 1, l. 56

• Death makes no conquest of this conqueror: For now he lives in fame, though not in life.

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Fame, Conquest

  William Shakespeare, Thomas Dolby (1872). “Dictionary of Shakespearian Quotations: Exhibiting the Most Forcible Passages, Illustrative of the Various Passions, Affections and Emotions of the Human Mind”, p.126

• Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness! This is the state of man: today he puts forth The tender leaves of hope, tomorrow blossoms, And bears his blushing honours thick upon him: The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, And - when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is a-ripening - nips his root, And then he falls, as I do.

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Fall, Farewell

  'Henry VIII' (1613) act 3, sc. 2, l. 352

• Golden lads and girls all must as chimney sweepers come to dust.

  William Shakespeare

  Girl, Death, Dust

  'Cymbeline' (1609-10) act 4, sc. 2, l. 258

• But that the dread of something after death,
  The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
  No traveller returns, puzzles the will
  And makes us rather bear those ills we have
  Than fly to others that we know not of?

  William Shakespeare

  Life, Death, Country

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 3, sc. 1, l. 56

• Death lies on her like an untimely frost.

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Lying, Frost

  'Romeo And Juliet' (1595) act 4, sc. 5, l. 25

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