William Shakespeare Quotes About Evil

• Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Evil, Hell

  William Shakespeare, Virginia Mason Vaughan, Alden T. Vaughan (1999). “The Tempest: Third Series”, p.164, Cengage Learning EMEA

• Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil; With them forgive yourself.

  William Shakespeare

  Forgiveness, Letting Go, Evil

  William Shakespeare (2012). “Comedies of Shakespeare in Plain and Simple English (a Modern Translation and the Original Version)”, p.7667, BookCaps Study Guides

• The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart. O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

  William Shakespeare

  Heart, Venice, Apples

  'The Merchant of Venice' (1596-8) act 1, sc. 3, l. [99]

• Love is familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but Love." -

  William Shakespeare

  Love, Angel, Evil

  William Shakespeare (2009). “Love's Labour's Lost”, p.80, Cambridge University Press

• So may the outward shows be least themselves: The world is still deceived with ornament. In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil? In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? There is no vice so simple but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.

  William Shakespeare

  Simple, Errors, Law

  'The Merchant of Venice' (1596-8) act 3, sc. 2, l. 73

• The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.

  William Shakespeare

  Life, Wisdom, Men

  1599 Antony. Julius Caesar, act 3, sc.2, l.74-86.

• Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.

  William Shakespeare

  Writing, Men, Evil

  'Henry VIII' (1613) act 4, sc. 2, l. 45

• I love him for his sake;
  And yet I know him a notorious liar,
  Think him a great way fool, solely a coward;
  Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him
  That they take place when virtue's steely bones
  Looks bleak i' th' cold wind; withal, full oft we see
  Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.

  William Shakespeare

  Liars, I Love Him, Thinking

  William Shakespeare, Thomas Bowdler (1850). “The Family Shakspeare, in One Volume: In which Nothing is Added to the Original Text, But Those Words and Expressions are Omitted which Cannot with Propriety be Read in a Family”, p.217

• They do not love that do not show their love. The course of true love never did run smooth. Love is a familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but Love.

  William Shakespeare

  Love, Running, Angel

• People’s good deeds we write in water. The evil deeds are etched in brass.

  William Shakespeare

  Writing, Evil, Water

• Antonio: Will you stay no longer? nor will you not that I go with you? Sebastian: By your patience, no. My stars shine darkly over me; the malignancy of my fate might, perhaps, distemper yours; therefore I shall crave of you your leave that I may bear my evils alone. It were a bad recompense for your love to lay any of them on you.

  William Shakespeare

  Stars, Fate, Evil

  William Shakespeare (2005). “Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will”, p.26, 1st World Publishing

• This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune,--often the surfeit of our own behavior,--we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star.

  William Shakespeare

  Stars, Liars, Men

  'King Lear' (1605-6) act 1, sc. 2, l. [132]

• Ah, what a sign it is of evil life, Where death's approach is seen so terrible!

  William Shakespeare

  Life, Evil, Terrible

  William Shakespeare (1734). “The Second Part of Henry the Sixth: With the Death of the Good Duke Humphry : a Tragedy”, p.55

• Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.

  William Shakespeare

  Evil, Deeds, Ill

  "The Wisdom and Genius of Shakespeare".

• In law, what plea so tainted and corrupts, but being seasoned with a gracious voice obscures the show of evil.

  William Shakespeare

  Law, Voice, Venice

  'The Merchant of Venice' (1596-8) act 3, sc. 2, l. 73

• A true repentance shuns the evil itself, more than the external suffering or the shame.

  William Shakespeare

  Evil, Suffering, Shame

  William Shakespeare, Capel Lofft (1812). “Aphorisms from Shakespeare”, p.250

• There is an old poor man,. . . . Oppress'd with two weak evils, age and hunger.

  William Shakespeare

  Men, Two, Evil

  William Shakespeare (1790*). “The Beauties of Shakespeare; Selected from His Works. To which are Added, the Principal Scenes in the Same Author. The Fifth Edition, Revised and Enlarged”, p.204

• The devil is a gentleman.

  William Shakespeare

  Evil, Gentleman, Devil

• Zounds! sir, you are one of those that will not serve God if the devil bid you.

  William Shakespeare

  Evil, Devil, Serving God

  'Othello' (1602-4) act 1, sc. 1, l. 108

• Sometimes we are devils to ourselves When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, Presuming on their changeful potency.

  William Shakespeare

  Evil, Temptation, Sometimes

  William Shakespeare (1867). “Works. The Text Carefully Restored According to the First Editions: With Introductions, Notes Original and Selected, and a Life of the Poet”, p.472

• O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil.

  William Shakespeare

  Wine, Destiny, Names

  'Othello' (1602-4) act 2, sc. 3, l. [285]

• Good with out evil is like light with out darkness which in turn is like righteousness whith out hope.

  William Shakespeare

  Light, Evil, Darkness

• There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distill it out.

  William Shakespeare

  Men, Evil, Soul

  1598-9 King Harry. HenryV, act 4, sc.1, l.4-5.

• Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck, And yet methinks I have astronomy. But not to tell of good or evil luck, Of plagues, of dearths, or season's quality; Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell ... Or say with princes if it shall go well.

  William Shakespeare

  Stars, Science, Evil

  William Shakespeare (2009). “Sonnets and Other Poems”, p.208, Palgrave Macmillan

• The apprehension of the good Gives but the greater feeling to the worse.

  William Shakespeare

  Evil, Giving, Feelings

  'Richard II' (1595) act 1, sc. 3, l. 294

You May Also Like:

Miguel de Cervantes

Anne Hathaway

Charles Dickens

William Wordsworth

Christopher Marlowe

Moliere

Elizabeth I