Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare!

William Shakespeare
April 22, 1564 – April 23, 1616

Famous Quotes about William Shakespeare

The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good - in spite of all the people who say he is very good.
Robert Graves (1895 - 1985)

When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder
That such trivial people should muse and thunder
In such lovely language.
D. H. Lawrence (1885 - 1930)

Or sweetest Shakespear, Fancy's child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild.
John Milton (1608 - 1674)

What needs my Shakespeare for his honour’d bones,
The labour of an age in piled stones,
Or that his hallow’d relics should be hid
Under a star-y-pointing pyramid?
Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,
What need’st thou such weak witness of thy name?
John Milton (1608 - 1674) Epitaph on Shakespeare


Shakespeare - The nearest thing in incarnation to the eye of God.
Laurence Olivier (1907 - 1989)



Wonderful women! Have you ever thought how much we all, and women especially, owe to Shakespear for his vindication of women in these fearless, high-spirited, resolute and intelligent heroines?
Dame Ellen Terry (1848 – 1928)



There Shakespeare, on whose forehead climb
The crowns o’ the world; oh, eyes sublime
With tears and laughter for all time!
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), "A Vision of Poets"


With this same key
Shake-speare unlocked his heart' once more!
Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shake-speare he!
Robert Browning (1812 - 1899), "House"



If called to define Shakespeare's faculty, I should say superiority of intellect, and think I had included all under that.
Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881) "Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History"



When Shakespeare is charged with debts to his authors, Landor replies, “Yet he was more original than his originals. He breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Quote (1803 - 1882) "Letters and Social Aims"



“He was not of an age, but for all time!”
Ben Jonson (1573 - 1637)