„For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.“

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 1595

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

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 1595

„These violent delights have violent ends // And in their triump die, like fire and powder // Which, as they kiss, consume.“

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 1595

„Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.“

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 1595

„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; // No more; and by a sleep to say we end // The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks // That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation // Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; // To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; // For in that sleep of death what dreams may come // When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, // Must give us pause: there's the respect // That makes calamity of so long life; // For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, // The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, // The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, // The insolence of office and the spurns // That patient merit of the unworthy takes, // When he himself might his quietus make // With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, // To grunt and sweat under a weary life, // But that the dread of something after death, // The undiscover'd country from whose bourn // No traveller returns, puzzles the will // And makes us rather bear those ills we have // Than fly to others that we know not of? // Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; // And thus the native hue of resolution // Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, // And enterprises of great pith and moment // With this regard their currents turn awry, // And lose the name of action. - Soft you now! // The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons // Be all my sins remember'd!“

William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1601

„I grow, I prosper. Now, gods, stand up for bastards.“

William Shakespeare, King Lear, 1603-1606, # 1, 2

„We are all bastards; // And that most venerable man which I // Did call my father, was I know not where // When I was stampd’d; some coin with tools // Made me a counterfeit ....“

William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, 1610, # 2, 5, 1