William Shakespeare Quotes About Fear

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

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  William Shakespeare (1838). “The Pictorial edition of the works of Shakspere, ed. by C. Knight. [8 vols., including a vol. entitled William Shakspere, by C. Knight].”, p.281

• 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

• A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Wise, Wisdom

• Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Success, Fear

  William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens (1813). “The Plays of William Shakespeare: In Twenty-one Volumes, with the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators, to which are Added Notes”, p.35

• Of all base passions, fear is the most accursed.

  William Shakespeare

  Life, Fear, Passion

• When you fear a foe, fear crushes your strength; and this weakness gives strength to your opponents.

  William Shakespeare

  Crush, Fear, Giving

• In time we hate that which we often fear.

  William Shakespeare

  Time, Fear, Hate

  'Antony and Cleopatra' (1606-7) act 1, sc. 3, l. 12

• Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.

  William Shakespeare

  Fear, Worry, Lady Macbeth

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 1, sc. 3, l. 130

• Be just, and fear not.

  William Shakespeare

  Fear, Justice, Anxiety

  'Henry VIII' (1613) act 3, sc. 2, l. 441

• Be wary then; best safety lies in fear.

  William Shakespeare

  Fear, Halloween, Lying

  William Shakespeare (1793). “The Plays of William Shakspeare: In Fifteen Volumes. With the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators. To which are Added, Notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. The Fourth Edition. Revised and Augmented (with a Glossarial Index) by the Editor of Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays”, p.50

• The fear's as bad as falling.

  William Shakespeare

  Fear, Fall

  William Shakespeare (1833). “The plays and poems of William Shakspeare”, p.716

• When daisies pied and violets blue And lady-smocks all silver-white And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight, The cuckoo then, on every tree, Mocks married men; for thus sings he, Cuckoo; Cuckoo, cuckoo; O, word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear.

  William Shakespeare

  Fear, Men, Blue

  'Love's Labour's Lost' (1595) act 5, sc. 2, l. [902]

• Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep, Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy To kings that fear their subjects treachery?

  William Shakespeare

  Kings, Fear, Silly

  'Henry VI, Part 3' (1592) act 1, sc. 5, l. 42

• Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win.

  William Shakespeare

  Art, Nature, Kindness

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 1, sc. 5, l. [16]

• ROSS You must have patience, madam. LADY MACDUFF He had none: His flight was madness: when our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors.

  William Shakespeare

  Fear, Our Actions, Madness

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 4, sc. 2, l. 3

• To be furious, is to be frighted out of fear.

  William Shakespeare

  Fear, Furious

  William Shakespeare, William Dodd (1839). “The Beauties of Shakspeare ... By the Rev. William Dodd, LL.D.”, p.194

• Thy best of rest is sleep, And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st Thy death, which is no more.

  William Shakespeare

  Fear, Sleep

  William Shakespeare, George Steevens, Edmond Malone (1823). “The plays of William Shakspeare”, p.133

• O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else? And shall I couple Hell?

  William Shakespeare

  Couple, Fear, Heaven

  1600-1 Hamlet. Hamlet, act1, sc.5, l.92-7.

• I have almost forgotten the taste of fears: The time has been, my senses would have cool’d to hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir as life were in’t: I have supt full with horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, cannot once start me.

  William Shakespeare

  Fear, Night, Hair

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 9

• I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end Like quills upon the fretful porpentine. But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O list!

  William Shakespeare

  Stars, Fear, Eye

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 1, sc. 5, l. 13

• Nothing routs us but the villainy of our fears.

  William Shakespeare

  Fear, Villainy

  William Shakespeare, Thomas Dolby (1832). “The Shakespearian Dictionary, Forming a General Index to All the Popular Expressions, and Most Striking Passages in the Works of Shakespeare, from a Few Words to Fifty Or More Lines ... By T. Dolby”, p.108

• But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
  Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
  In the affliction of these terrible dreams
  That shake us nightly.

  William Shakespeare

  Dream, Fear, Sleep

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 3, sc. 2, l. 11

• To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength, gives in your weakness strength unto your foe.

  William Shakespeare

  Fear, Giving, Weakness

  William Shakespeare (2013). “The Wars of the Roses In Plain and Simple English: Includes Henry VI Parts 1 - 3 & Richard III, Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V”, p.1097, BookCaps Study Guides

• Extreme fear can neither fight nor fly.

  William Shakespeare

  Fear, Fighting, Extremes

  Cross, William Shakespeare (1989). “William Shakespeare: The Complete Works”, p.1209, Barnes & Noble Publishing

• What wouldst thou do, old man?
  Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak
  When power to flattery bows?

  William Shakespeare

  Fear, Men, Thinking

  William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens (1785). “The Plays of William Shakspeare ...”, p.387

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