“By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“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, quote from Macbeth
“Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Life ... is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under it.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“...Who could refrain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make love known?”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more, is none”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair, hover through fog and filthy air.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Where shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain? When the hurlyburly 's done, when the battle 's lost and won”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Come what come may, time and the hour run through the roughest day.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Things without all remedy should be without regard: what's done is done.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top full
Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry "Hold, hold!”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“All causes shall give way: I am in blood
Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“O, full of scorpions is my mind!”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Out, out brief candle, life is but a walking shadow...a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Out, damned spot! out, I say!”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Macbeth: How does your patient, doctor?
Doctor: Not so sick, my lord, as she is troubled with thick-coming fancies that keep her from rest.
Macbeth: Cure her of that! Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, raze out the written troubles of the brain, and with some sweet oblivious antidote cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs upon her heart.
Doctor: Therein the patient must minister to himself.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“So fair and foul a day I have not seen.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, which still we thank as love.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,
Yet Grace must still look so.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“We see them as they cannot, will not, see each other--we see his heart in the way he looks at her; we see her soul calling out for his every touch. It would be so easy if they could only see inside each other as we can.
And yet, there is beauty in the way they find each other: slowly, in a fragile dance of sidelong glances and accidental touches. To see them come together, souls binding without knowing each other as we do, without being certain of what the other's heart holds, is to learn something new...
Faith.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from Their Fractured Light
“She looked toward the window, smiling away her life”
― David Leavitt, quote from The Lost Language of Cranes
“As the Japanese will tell you, one can train a rose to grow through anything, to grow through a nautilus even, but it must be done with tenderness.”
― Andrew Sean Greer, quote from The Confessions of Max Tivoli
“Perhaps sound is only an insanity of silence, a mad gibber of empty space grown fearful of listening to itself and hearing nothing.”
― Steven Millhauser, quote from Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954 by Jeffrey Cartwright
“Amber casts an infinity of shadows, and my Avalon had cast many of its own, because of my presence there. I might be known on many earths that I had never trod, for shadows of myself had walked them, mimicking imperfectly my deeds and my thoughts.”
― Roger Zelazny, quote from The Guns of Avalon
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.