William Shakespeare Quotes About Writing

• If I could write the beauty of your eyes And in fresh numbers number all your graces, The age to come would say, 'This poet lies; Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces.'

  William Shakespeare

  Beauty, Lying, Writing

  Sonnet 17

• 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

• To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.

  William Shakespeare

  Writing, Men, Charity

  'Much Ado About Nothing' (1598-9) act 3, sc. 3, l. [14]

• Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.

  William Shakespeare

  Writing, Crafts, Suits

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 3, sc. 2, l. [19]

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

  William Shakespeare

  Writing, Evil, Water

• No matter where; of comfort no man speak: Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth

  William Shakespeare

  Writing, Eye, Men

  'Richard II' (1595) act 3, sc. 2, l. 144

• Write till your ink be dry, and with your tears
  Moist it again, and frame some feeling line
  That may discover such integrity.

  William Shakespeare

  Integrity, Writing, Feelings

  William Shakespeare, James Boswell, Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, Edward Capell (1821). “The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare”, p.90

• Never durst poet touch a pen to write Until his ink were temper'd with Love's sighs.

  William Shakespeare

  Love You, Writing, Ink

  William Shakespeare (1823). “The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare: From the Text of Johnson, Stevens, and Reed; with Glossarial Notes, His Life, and a Critique on His Genius & Writings”, p.173

• O, how I faint when I of you do write, Knowing a better spirit doth use your name, And in the praise thereof spends all his might To make me tongue-tied speaking of your fame.

  William Shakespeare

  Writing, Names, Knowing

  William Shakespeare, Howard Staunton (1860). “The Plays of Shakespeare with the Poems”, p.772

• I once did hold it, as our statists do,
  A baseness to write fair, and labour'd much
  How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
  It did me yeoman's service.

  William Shakespeare

  Writing, Yeoman, Fairness

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 5, sc. 2, l. 33

• Go, write it in a martial hand; be curst and brief; it is no matter how witty, so it be eloquent and fun of invention: taunt him with the licence of ink: if thou thou'st him some thrice, it shall not be amiss; and as many lies as will lie in thy shee.

  William Shakespeare

  Witty, Fun, Lying

  William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens, Isaac Reed (1778). “The Plays of William Shakespeare in Ten Volumes: With Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators”, p.232

• Make me a willow cabin at your gate, And call upon my soul within the house; Write loyal cantons of contemned love And sing them loud even in the dead of night.

  William Shakespeare

  Writing, Night, House

  'Twelfth Night' (1601) act 1, sc. 5, l. [289]

• Don Pedro - (...)'In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.' Benedick - The savage bull may, but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns and set them in my forehead, and let me be vildly painted; and in such great letters as they writes, 'Here is good horse for hire', let them signify under my sign, 'Here you may see Benedick the married man.

  William Shakespeare

  Horse, Writing, Men

• He capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks holiday, he smells April and May.

  William Shakespeare

  Dance, Holiday, Eye

  'The Merry Wives of Windsor' (1597) act 3, sc. 2, l. [71]

• Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.... [W]hat can we bequeath, Save our deposed bodies to the ground?... [N]othing can we call our own, but death... [L]et us sit upon the ground, And tell sad stories of the death of kings: - How some have been depos'd, some slain in war; Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd.

  William Shakespeare

  Kings, War, Writing

• Let there be gall enough in thy ink, though thou write with a goose-pen, no matter.

  William Shakespeare

  Writing, Ink, Matter

  William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens, Isaac Reed (1778). “The Plays of William Shakespeare in Ten Volumes: With Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators”, p.232

• Will Fortune never come with both hands full,
  But write her fair words still in foulest terms?

  William Shakespeare

  Writing, Hands, Fortune

  1597-8 Henry, receiving good news when ill. Henry IV PartTwo, act 4, sc.3, l.103-4.

You May Also Like:

Miguel de Cervantes

Anne Hathaway

Charles Dickens

William Wordsworth

Christopher Marlowe

Moliere

Elizabeth I