All the world's a stage And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances And one man in his time plays many parts.

— William Shakespeare

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.

— William Shakespeare

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players;They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the part, Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances;And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and skippered Pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

— William Shakespeare

All things are ready, if our mind be so.

— William Shakespeare

All things that we ordained festival, Turn from their office to black funeral;Our instruments to melancholy bells, Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast, Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change, Our bridal flowers serve for a buried course, And all things change them to the contrary.

— William Shakespeare

A lover goes toward his beloved as enthusiastically as a schoolboy leaving his books, but when he leaves his girlfriend, he feels as miserable as the schoolboy on his way to school. (Act 2, scene 2)

— William Shakespeare

A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.

— William Shakespeare

Ambition should be made from sterner stuff.

— William Shakespeare

A me! For aught that I ever could read Could ever hear by tale or history The course of true love never did run smooth.

— William Shakespeare

An admirable evasion of who remaster man, to lay his goats disposition on the charge of a star!

— William Shakespeare