What I really appreciate about Shakespeare is how he conveyed eternal truths in a few words:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
This passage from Romeo and Juliette suggested to the reader, amid the backdrop of tragedy, that is not one's name but one 's character that defines them.
"This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
In this speech Polonius gives his children advice parents would be wise to offer today, the only way to navigate society without getting yourself into too much trouble is to never pretend to be someone you're not.
"Brevity is the soul of wit."
This is my favorite, one I use in writing everyday. Even though having Polonius say this in the middle of a long speech was Shakespeare's idea of a joke, any editor, publisher, or agent will tell you if you can't sum up your plot in a few words it's not a good plot. To take it a step further, intelligence does not require long passages of rhetoric to get its point across.
No matter how often I read these quotes, even though they were written almost 500 years ago, I am amazed that they are still applicable today. Thanks, Bill!
