All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an English playwright and poet, author of some thirty-eight plays and a hundred and fifty-four sonnets. He wrote for the public theatre and for audiences of every rank, and his effect on the English language is such that a great many of his phrases are now ordinary speech.
About this theme: Philosophy
Philosophy always sits awkwardly in a collection of quotations: systems do not compress into a sentence, and that is exactly what is asked of them. Kant's ethics or Nietzsche's critique of morality do not fit into a single line without loss. What survives is the phrasing — often brilliant, but lifted out of the context that gave it weight.
More by William Shakespeare
- Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
- Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
- There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
- How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
- The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
More on Philosophy
- The unexamined life is not worth living.— Socrates
- Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.— Baruch Spinoza
- The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.— Michel de Montaigne
- A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.— Blaise Pascal