Get the most epic list of 129 famous and romantic William Shakespeare love quotes here, whether you are preparing a script for a wedding ceremony, writing a Valentine’s Day note, or just soaking in the beauty of his timeless words about love.

famous william shakespeare love quotes

I love to read Shakespeare as part of my book club challenge to read the books referenced on Gilmore Girls.

It’s hard to believe how many of these quotes are so well-known and memorable to this day! I have no doubt you will also find some hidden gems in this epic list.

First, I share romantic William Shakespeare love quotes from popular works, and then, I share dozens more of the most famous William Shakespeare love quotes from a wide variety of other of his works.

The Most Romantic William Shakespeare Love Quotes

romeo and juliet quote about infinity by william shakespeare

Best Love Quotes from Romeo and Juliet

“This bud of love by summer’s ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.”

“Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof.”

“Lovers can do their amorous rites by their own beauties.”

“Young men’s love then lies Not truly in their hearts but in their eyes.”

“For stony limits cannot hold love out, And what love can do that dares love attempt.”

“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.”

“Do thou but close our hands with holy words, Then love-devouring death do what he dare; It is enough I may but call her mine.”

“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep. The more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.”

“Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes; Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.”

“Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake- its everything except what it is!”

“Parting is such sweet sorrow.”

“With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls, For stony limits cannot hold love out.”

“See how she leans her cheek upon her hand, O that I were a glove upon that hand that I might touch that cheek!”

“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.”

“One fairer than my love? the all-seeing sun Ne’er saw her match since first the world begun.”

“O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon, That monthly changes in her circled orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.”

“Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.”

“You are a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings And soar with them above a common bound.”

“Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books, But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.”

“If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.”

“Don’t waste your love on somebody, who doesn’t value it.”

“Love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.”


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Best Hamlet Quotes About Love

“Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar but never doubt thy love.”

“I loved Ophelia: Forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum.”

“Love is begun by time, And time qualifies the spark and fire of it.”

“This is the very ecstasy of love.”

“Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear; when little fears grow great, great love grows there.”


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Best A Midsummer Night’s Dream Love Quotes

“The course of true love never did run smooth.”

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”

“Cupid is a knavish lad, thus to make females mad.”

“So we grew together, Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet an union in partition, Two lovely berries moulded on one stem.”

“I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, To die upon the hand I love so well.”

“To say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.”

“Love’s stories written in love’s richest books. To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes.”

“Love can transpose to form and dignity.”


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Best Much Ado About Nothing Love Quotes

“I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.”

“Speak low if you speak love.”

“Love goes by haps; Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.”

“I will not be sworn but love may transform me to an oyster.”

“She will die if you love her not, And she will die ere she might make her love known.”

“I do love nothing in the world so well as you—is not that strange?”

“When you depart from me sorrow abides, and happiness takes his leave.” 

“Silence is the perfectest herald of joy. I were but little happy if I could say how much.—Lady, as you are mine, I am yours. I give away myself for you and dote upon the exchange.”

“In my opinion, love and quiet simplicity if they speak less, they say more.”

“I love thee. By my life, I do.”

“Suffer love,–a good epithet! I do suffer love indeed, for I love thee against my will.”

“Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues.”

“Love me! Why, it must be requited.”

“Tell me for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?”


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Best Merchant of Venice Quotes About Love

“But love is blind, and lovers cannot see The pretty follies that themselves commit.”

“Lovers ever run before the clock.”

“One half of me is yours, the other half yours—Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours, And so all yours.” 

“Beshrew your eyes, They have o’erlooked me and divided me. One half of me is yours, the other half yours— Mine own, I would say. But if mine, then yours, And so all yours.”

“O love, be moderate. Allay thy ecstasy. In measure rein thy joy.”


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Best William Shakespeare Love Quotes from Sonnets

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.” – Sonnet 18

“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” – Sonnet 18

“For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, That then I scorn to change my state with kings.” – Sonnet 29

“Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken.” – Sonnet 116

“Thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings.” – Sonnet 29

“So are you to my thoughts as food to life, Or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground.” – Sonnet 75

“Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white, Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose; They were but sweet, but figures of delight Drawn after you…” – Sonnet 98

“Oh, love’s best habit is in seeming trust, And age in love loves not to have years told.” – Sonnet 138

“O! how thy worth with manners may I sing, When thou art all the better part of me?” – Sonnet 39

“Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.” – Sonnet 116

“Those lines that I before have writ do lie, Ev’n those that said I could not love you dearer. Yet then my judgment knew no reason why My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer.” – Sonnet 115


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More Famous William Shakespeare Love Quotes

“If music be the food of love, play on.” – Twelfth Night

“Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.” – Twelfth Night

“Love is like a child, That longs for everything it can come by.” – The Two Gentlemen of Verona

“Hear my soul speak. Of the very instant that I saw you, Did my heart fly at your service.” – The Tempest

“I would not wish Any companion in the world but you: Nor can imagination form a shape Besides yourself to like of.” – The Tempest

“I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say ‘I love you.'” – Henry V

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” – All’s Well That Ends Well

“No sooner met but they looked, no sooner looked but they loved, no sooner loved, but they sighed, no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason. No sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy; And in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage…” – As You Like It

“Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.” – Venus and Adonis

“And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.” – Love’s Labour’s Lost

“Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?” – As You Like It

“For where thou art, there is the world itself, and where though art not, desolation.” – Henry VI

“I love you more than words can wield the matter, Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty.” – King Lear

“Her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love.” – Antony and Cleopatra

“I humbly do beseech of your pardon, For too much of loving you.” – Othello

“If thou remember’st not the slightest folly That ever love did make thee run into, Thou hast not loved.” – As You Like It

“O mistress mine, where are you roaming? O, stay and hear; your true love’s coming,
That can sing both high and low: Trip no further, pretty sweeting; Journeys end in lovers meeting, Every wise man’s son doth know.” – Twelfth Night

“There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned.” – Antony and Cleopatra

“Down on your knees, And thank Heaven, fasting, for a good man’s love.” – As You Like It

“In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding: Sweet lovers love the spring.” – As You Like It

“A lover’s eyes will gaze an eagle blind; A lover’s ears will hear the lowest sound.” – Love’s Labours Lost

“But love, first learned in a lady’s eyes, Lives not alone immured in the brain, / But, with the motion of all elements, Courses as swift as thought in every power, / And gives to every power a double power, Above their functions and their offices.” – Love’s Labours Lost

“Never durst poet touch a pen to write Until his ink were tempered with Love’s sighs.” – Love’s Labours Lost

“What’s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.” – Measure for Measure

“Let’s go hand in hand, not one before another.” – The Comedy of Errors

“O, how this spring of love resembleth The uncertain glory of an April day, / Which now shows all the beauty of the sun, And by and by a cloud takes all away!” – The Two Gentlemen of Verona

“To be wise, and love, Exceeds man’s might.” – Troilus and Cressida

“Love comforteth like sunshine after rain, But lust’s effect is tempest after sun; Love’s gentle spring doth always fresh remain, Lust’s winter comes ere summer half be done. Love surfeits not; lust like a glutton dies; Love is all truth; lust full of forged lies.” – Venus and Adonis

“They do not love that do not show their love.” – The Two Gentleman of Verona

“A heart to love, and in that heart, Courage, to make’s love known.” – Macbeth

“The sight of lovers feedeth those in love.” – As You Like It

“She loved me for the dangers I had passed, And I loved her that she did pity them.” – Othello

“They are in the very wrath of love, and they will go together. Clubs cannot part them.” – As You Like It

“What is love? ‘Tis not hereafter: Present mirth hath present laughter.” – Twelfth Night

“A heaven on earth I have won by wooing thee.” – All’s Well That Ends Well

“But are you so much in love as your rhymes speak? Neither rhyme nor reason can express how much.” – As You Like It

“Sweet, above thought I love thee.” – Troilus and Cressida

“Love is a spirit all compact of fire.” – Venus and Adonis

“I can express no kinder sign of love, than this kind kiss.” – Cymbeline

“O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this sound And crown what I profess with kind event If I speak true! If hollowly, invert What best is boded me to mischief! I Beyond all limit of what else i’ th’ world Do love, prize, honor you.” – The Tempest

“I, Beyond all limit of what else i’ th’ world, Do love, prize, honour you.” – The Tempest

“He is the half part of a blessed man, Left to be finished by such as she: And she a fair divided excellence, Whose fullness of perfection lies in him.” – King John

“Now join hands, and with your hands your hearts.” – Henry VI

“Love hath made thee a tame snake.” – As You Like It

“Excellent wetch! Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee, and when I love thee not, chaos is come again.” – Othello

“For ever and a day.” – As You Like It

“In thy face I see the map of honour, truth and loyalty.” – Henry IV

“My love’s more richer than my tongue.” – King Lear


Conclusion

You have now read all the most romantic and famous William Shakespeare love quotes.

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