Shakespeare Died 400 Years Ago Saturday, Yet His Language Lives On In These Common Phrases

If brevity is the soul of wit, we probably aren't doing Shakespeare any favors by drawing out his best lines for nearly half a millennium.

Then again, the best we've collectively come up with lately are words like "selfie," aka the Oxford Dictionaries 2013 word of the year. And, based solely on the playwright's (apparent) silent judgement of the selfie in the above photo, perhaps he'd be happy to serve as an aspirational example.

April 23 marks the 400th anniversary of The Bard's death (historians are unsure of his actual birthday), and, in honor of the playwright's remarkable contributions to the English language, we've collected some of the best lines he popularized that persist now -- even in the age of selfies:

• "All of a sudden." "The Taming of the Shrew," c. 1596
• "Brevity is the soul of wit." "Hamlet," c. 1602
• "Fair play." "The Tempest," c. 1610
• “Dead as a doornail.” "Henry VI, Part II," c. 1591
• “For goodness’ sake.” "Henry VIII," c. 1623
• “Foregone conclusion.” "Othello," c. 1603
• “Heart of gold.” "Henry V," c. 1600
• “Knock, knock! Who’s there?” "Macbeth," c. 1611
• "Fight fire with fire." "King John," c. 1623
• "Hot-blooded." "The Merry Wives of Windsor," c. 1602
• "In a pickle." "The Tempest," c. 1611
• "Send him packing." "Henry IV, Part I," c. 1600
• "The be-all and the end-all." "Macbeth," c. 1611
• "Wild goose chase." "Romeo and Juliet," c. 1597