Talk:William Shakespeare

These quotes should be move to the entry for those books. Only quotes said (or thought to be said) by William Shakespeare should be here, not ones that he wrote down in his plays. Altough soemthing could be added to template for authors, about linking to there books/plays. However an autobiogrophy quotes should be on the authors page IMO. -fonzy

I think we are rather unlikely to find any real life Shakespeare quotations ;-) Besides, most quotations were published somewhere Churchill's etc People would look both for quotations from some specific Shakespeare play and look for a quotation knowing only it was by Shakespeare. I think it wouldn't harm to have duplicates or redirects under Shakespeare and Romeo and Julliet, Hamlet etc. Kpjas 16:07 13 Jul 2003 (UTC)

How about just something like the top of the page? We can have the play name, followed by a set of the more general/interesting/etc. quotes from that play. If the user wants to read more quotes from that play, they click on the link. -- Gaurav 08:58 19 Jul 2003 (UTC)
 * Ten years later: good idea! ~ DanielTom (talk) 22:01, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

I read a very interesting book, stating that Shakespeare was a Puritan. (Ned-Sept.) I think as many quotes of Shakespeare's as can be quoted, might be helpful.

I added a notice saying that the quotes are from Shakespeare's works. Lbc07 (talk) 12:42, 21 February 2019 (UTC)


 * This notice is misleading. These are his words, since he wrote them. Most are from plays, and most/all of these say which play and which character is speaking. A few aren't from plays. I conclude this notice is not entirely true and certainly unnecessary.

=Verse= It really is ridiculous to have these quotes written out as prose. Is there no way we can write them as they were written (and spoken, for that matter); as verse? 72.138.207.91 07:17, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

william shakespeare is known as bard.

Translate to modern english
Can we change some of the quotes to modern english?Mooncrest 15:43, 20 May 2008 (UTC) he died on his 52 b'day


 * All of these quotes are in Modern English.

is it normal ?
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Modernity_of_Shakespeare.jpg

Quotes from the plays on this page
Initial conversation between DanielTom and BD2412, copied from User talk:DanielTom‎:

Greetings. Why are you adding quotes from Shakespeare's plays to his page? Each play already has its own page. Cheers! BD2412 T 15:56, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi BD. I know, I am adding quotes to those pages as well, trying to make them more complete, but then I select 3 of the best quotes from each play and add those to the William Shakespeare page, with a link to the in-depth articles (using the template). I did a similar thing in the Bertrand Russell article (see, e.g., here, here and here), at first following the format of Dostoevsky's article. I want key quotes to be in the main articles. For example, if people now go to the William Shakespeare page and search "kill all the lawyers", they will easily find that quote. If they want, they can then click in the link right next to it and go to the play's main article, to read further. The Shakespeare page should potentially be the best page on WQ, and the most popular, but as it stands it has almost no quotes by him whatever, so it is not much visited. Adding a few sample quotes (the most famous ones) from each play to his main article not only improves his page, but also makes the sub-pages you mentioned get more visits. (Is that controversial?) ~ DanielTom (talk) 16:35, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
 * I don't know that it is "controversial" but it is duplicative. My thinking on this is that if we are to have any duplication, it should only be of Shakespeare's best known quotes - "To be or not to be", "What a piece of work is a man!", "Romeo, O' Romeo, wherefore art thou, O' Romeo". Not every work will necessarily be represented in that collection. BD2412 T 16:42, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
 * I agree with your idea (only "duplicate" the most famous quotes), except that I think we should add the best known quotes from each play. (I would be satisfied to only add the ones you mention if Wikiquote was just some sort of elementary school project, but it isn't.) I don't have a problem with 3 "duplicates" per play, but if you do I will stop — there is room for reasonable disagreement here. ~ DanielTom (talk) 16:53, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

Continued conversation:
 * As great as Shakespeare was, not all of his plays were hits, and some contain no lines that have pervaded the general polity. Not every play has an "Is this a dagger I see before me" moment, and it diminishes those moments a bit to surround them with lesser known lines, from lesser known plays. BD2412 T 17:05, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
 * That inevitably happens in all articles. Anyway, I really do not see how adding just 3 sample quotes from each of his plays could possibly "[diminish] those moments". (In fact, as it now stands, the William Shakespeare article has almost no quotes at all, so there is not much to "diminish".) I have nothing to add to what was said above, so I await other people's thoughts with interest. ~ DanielTom (talk) 17:24, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Three quotes from each of 40 plays would be 120 quotes. Why don't we start with the truly monumental quotes from the truly monumental plays, and see how the page looks with those included? BD2412 T 17:36, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Sure, starting with the "truly monumental quotes" is a good idea, but I have only read two of Shakespeare's "monumental plays", so I cannot add quotes from those works myself without 1) research and 2) spoilers. Others are welcome to do it. Indeed, I will eventually get to those, but as I am going through his plays chronologically, it may take me some time. (BTW, 120 quotes [if we ever get to that] is not that bad for someone like Shakespeare. Compare that with the Bertrand Russell article, which must have almost 400 quotes!) ~ DanielTom (talk) 18:20, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
 * You can "see how the page looks" now. Not sure if you will like it or not. ~ DanielTom (talk) 19:14, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
 * It's looking good. When you say "spoilers", do you mean spoiling the plays for yourself, since you have not read them yet? BD2412 T 20:01, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I just added some more, so the article now covers at least most of his best known quotes. (I've hidden the ones I had added earlier, so that only the most famous ones appear.) Yes, I was afraid of spoiling them for myself, but fortunately nothing bad happened (I think). Okay, ~ DanielTom (talk) 21:00, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

Misattributed section
At the bottom of this section, a user has put, 'The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. Not by Shakespeare, but from Finding Your Strength in Difficult Times: A Book of Meditations, a 1993 self-help book by David S. Viscott.' I believe that David S. Viscott simply copied this quote from Shakespeare, therefore making the user's claim redundant. Lbc07 (talk) 12:13, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

misattributed quote
Add "An SSL error has occurred and a secure connection to the server could not be made." Because 2607:FEA8:551D:2E00:9574:232F:CA4E:8194 21:15, 7 March 2023 (UTC)