30 Iconic Shakespeare Quotes About Life

Never has there lived a writer who has been better at capturing the complexities of the human condition like William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s writing about life resonates across time because it examines the essence of what it means to be human, and not since the Bard have the realities of existence been articulated so profoundly. Study up on some of his best with these 30 iconic Shakespeare quotes about life.

Want more Shakespeare? Check out these 50 quotes about love!

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To be, or not to be—that is the question
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep
Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1

O gentlemen, the time of life is short!
To spend that shortness basely were too long,
If life did ride upon a dial's point,
Still ending at the arrival of an hour.
Henry IV, Act 5, Scene 2

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.
All's Well That Ends Well, Act 4, Scene 3

I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but, for my single self,
I had as lief not be as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.
Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2

Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.
Much Ado About Nothing, Act 1, Scene 3

O excellent! I love long life better than figs.
Antony and Cleopatra, Act 1, Scene 2

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
the valiant never taste of death but once.
Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 2

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.
As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7

Let life be short: else shame will be too long.
Henry V, Act 4, Scene 5

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.
Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5

So wise so young, they say,
never do live long.
Richard III, Act 3, Scene 1

There where my fortune lives, there my life dies.
King John, Act 3, Scene 1

The sands are number'd that make up my life;
Here must I stay, and here my life must end.
Henry VI, Act 1, Scene 4

Thy life's a miracle.
King Lear, Act 4, Scene 6

It is silliness to live when to live is torment;
and then have we a prescription to die
when death is our physician.
Othello, Act 1, Scene 3

We are such stuff as dreams are made on
and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1

Be not afraid of greatness.
Some are born great, some achieve greatness,
and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. 

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 5

When we are born we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools
King Lear, Act 4, Scene 6

You cannot, sir, take from me anything
that I will not more willingly part withal -
except my life, except my life, except my life
Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2

I bear a charmed life.
Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 8

Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.
King John, Act 3, Scene 4

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 1

This day I breathed first: time is come round,
And where I did begin there shall I end;
My life is run his compass.
Julius Caesar, Act 5, Scene 3

And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe.
And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot;
And thereby hangs a tale.
As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7

Why, what should be the fear?
I do not set my life at a pin’s fee.
Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 4

That but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We’d jump the life to come.
Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7

Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 3

Had I but died an hour before this chance,
I had liv’d a blessed time; for, from this instant,
There’s nothing serious in mortality:
All is but toys; renown, and grace is dead;
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.
Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3

Reason thus with life:
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
That none but fools would keep.
Measure for Measure, Act 3, Scene 1

A man can die but once.
Henry IV, Part 2, Act 3, Scene 2