Half the common phrases we use today came from Shakespeare. When I was studying the Classics, he was the only author from any epoch who had an entire series of classes devoted exclusively to his work. Not Homer, not Dickens, not Marlowe or Bacon or Hemingway or Joyce or anyone else.
Shakespeare stands alone.
Someone once said, “I refuse to go see a Shakespeare play. They’re all just a bunch of cliches strung together.”