Famous Quotations from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

Famous Quotations from Much Ado About Nothing

He hath indeed better bettered expectation. (1.1)

I see, lady, the gentleman in not in your books. (1.1)

Friendship is constant in all other things,
Save in the office and affairs of love.
Therefore, all hearts in love use their own tongues;
Let every eye negotiate for itself,
And trust no other agent. (2.1)

For beauty is a witch
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood. (2.1)

Silence is the perfectest herald of joy; I were but little happy, if I could say how much. (2.1)

She speaks poniards, and every word stabs. (2.1)

Speak low, if you speak love. (2.1)

Sits the wind in that corner? (2.3)

When I said I should die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married. (2.3)

Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the career of his humour? (2.3)

Some, Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. (3.1)

One doth not know
How much an ill word may empoison liking. (3.1)

Every one can master a grief but he that has it. (3.2)

Are you good men and true? (3.3)

Is most tolerable, and not to be endured. (3.3)

Comparisons are odorous. (3.5)

God send every one their heart's desire! (3.4)

O that he were here to write me down—an ass! (4.2)

A fellow that had losses. (4.2)

For there was never yet philosopher
That could endure the toothache patiently. (5.1)

In a false quarrel there is no true valour. (5.1)

Done to death by slanderous tongues. (5.3)

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In the Spotlight

Featured Quotation

O that I were a man for his sake! or that I
had any friend would be a man for my sake! But
manhood is melted into courtesies, valour into
compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and
trim ones too: he is now as valiant as Hercules
that only tells a lie and swears it. I cannot be a
man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving
Much Ado About Nothing (3.4), Beatrice

"One is apt to liken Beatrice to Rosalind; yet their only points of resemblance consist of dramatic situations somewhat similar, and the distinguishing endowment of wit. As to the quality of this gift, however, the two ladies so differ that it can scarcely constitute a characteristic in common between them. The wit of Beatrice, brilliant as it is, is but the dazzle of words -- it has no imaginative element, none of the half-playful pathos which renders that of Rosalind so charming; the two compare as the cold, artificial glitter of a diamond with the cordial warmth of sunshine." [Henrietta Palmer]
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