“To be, or not to be, that is the question.”
— Hamlet (1601)
The most famous line in English literature. Hamlet contemplates whether existence itself is worth the suffering it entails — philosophy compressed into ten syllables.
Author Quotes
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist.
“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
— A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596)
Lysander's observation in Act I. Shakespeare states what every love story demonstrates — obstacles are not incidental to love but constitutive of it.
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
— The Tempest (1611)
Prospero's speech in Act IV. Often read as Shakespeare's own farewell to the stage — life as a brief performance between two silences.
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
— A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596)
Helena's complaint in Act I. Love is irrational — it doesn't see what's there but invents what it needs. Shakespeare diagnoses the pathology of desire.
“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
— As You Like It (1599)
Jaques's famous speech in Act II. The theatrum mundi metaphor — life as performance — becomes Shakespeare's commentary on identity as a series of roles.
“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
— Romeo and Juliet (1597)
Juliet's argument that names are arbitrary labels. The line challenges the idea that identity is fixed by social categories — love should transcend naming.