“It was Greek to me.” This handy reference showcases William Shakespeare’s genius, compiling over 1,500 of his most famous epigrams, invectives, literary expressions, and philosophical poems that have found their way into our everyday vernacular.

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PREFACE THE object of this little book is to call your attention to the fact that there is nothing new under the sun. We still use these phrases from Shakespeare that have been used for hundreds of years. In the other sections of this book you will find the epigrams, invectives, poems of philosophy and beautiful literary expressions that make Shakespeare stand out as the greatest intellectual prodigy Nature has produced. As we read, "We get knowledge from Shakespeare, not with painful labor, as we dig gold from the mine, but at leisure, and with delight, as we gain health and vigor from the sports of the field." After you have read the expressions in this book, you will see there is nothing new. One age picks up the habits of the old age and carries them on. These are plagiarists, some say; others say it is the law of human nature. "Today is the pupil of yesterday. Man is an infant born at midnight, who, when he sees the sun rise, thinks that yesterday has never existed." -Anderson M. Baten.