Quotes from Shakespeare Plays

There are so many great quotes from Shakespeare plays - and some of the best quotes from Shakespeare come from his collection of comedy plays.

Indeed, many of today’s most popular phrases derive from Shakespeare comedy plays. Have you ever found yourself saying “I’ll not budge and inch” or “the World’s my oyster”? You may be surprised to know that these are all quotes from Shakespeare plays.

The Comedies - Quotes from Shakespeare Plays

• All's Well That Ends Well:
  No legacy is so rich as honesty.
  (Spoken by Mariana in Act 3 Scene 5)
• As You Like It:
  If thou remember'st not the slightest folly
  That ever love did make thee run into,
  Thou hast not loved:
  Or if thou hast not sat as I do now,
  Wearying thy hearer in thy mistress' praise,
  Thou hast not loved:
  Or if thou hast not broke from company
  Abruptly, as my passion now makes me,
  Thou hast not loved.
  (Spoken by Silvius in Act 2 Scene 4)
• Comedy of Errors:
  We came into the world like brother and brother;
  And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.
  (Spoken by Dromio Of Ephesus in Act 5 Scene 1)
• Cymbeline:
  Is there no way for men to be, but women
  Must be half-workers?
  (Spoken by Posthumus Leonatus in Act 2 Scene 5)
• Love’s Labour’s Lost:
  How well he's read, to reason against reading!
  (Spoken by Ferdinand in Act 1 Scene 1)
• Measure for Measure:
  O! it is excellent
  To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous
  To use it like a giant.
  (Spoken by Isabella in Act 2 Scene 2)
• The Merry Wives of Windsor:
  Why, then the world's mine oyster.
  Which I with sword will open.
  (Spoken by Pistol in Act 2 Scene 2)
• The Merchant of Venice:
  I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands,
  organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same
  food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases,
  heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter
  and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If
  you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?
  And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the
  rest, we will resemble you in that.
  (Spoken by Shylock in Act 3 Scene 1)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream:
  Ay me! for aught that ever I could read,
  Could ever hear by tale or history,
  The course of true love never did run smooth.
  (Spoken by Lysander in Act 1 Scene 1)
• Much Ado About Nothing:
  Some, Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
  (Spoken by Hero in Act 3 Scene 1)
• The Taming of the Shrew:
  I’ll not budge an inch.
  (Spoken by Sly in the Introduction)
• The Tempest:
  Where the bee sucks. there suck I:
  In a cowslip's bell I lie;
  There I couch when owls do cry.
  On the bat's back I do fly
  After summer merrily.
  Merrily, merrily shall I live now
  Under the blossom that hangs on the bough..
  (Spoken by Ariel in Act 5 Scene 1)
• Twelfth Night:
  Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.
  (Spoken by Malvolio in Act 2 Scene 1)