Shakespeare Quotations
Much Ado About Nothing

                     “He hath borne himself beyond the
prom-ise of his age, doing in the figure of a lamb the
feats of a lion.”
(Messenger, 1.1, 11-12)

                                        “How much better it is to
weep at joy than to joy at weeping!”
(Leonato, 1.1, 23-24)

                                     “He wears his faith but as the
fashion of his hat, it ever changes with the next
block.”
(Beatrice, 1.1, 60-61)

         “O Lord, he will hang upon him like a disease.
He is sooner caught than the pestilence, and the taker
runs pres-ently mad.”
(Beatrice, 1.1, 68-70)

    “The fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you
encounter it.”
(Don Pedro, 1.1, 78-79)

          “Never cam trouble to my house in the
likeness of your grace; for trouble being gone, comfort
should remain, but when you depart from me,
sorrow abides and happiness takes his leave.”
(Leonato, 1.1, 80-83)

                                                   “Courtesy itself must
convert to disdain if you come in her presence.”
(Beatrice, 1.1, 99-100)

“A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.”
(Beatrice, 1.1, 114)

                   “Why, i’faith, me thinks she’s too low for
a high praise, too brown for a fair praise, and too
little for a great praise. Only this commendation I can
afford her, that were she other than she is she were
unhandsome, and being no other   but as she is, I do
not like her.”
(Benedick, 1.1, 148-52)

                                                             “Shall I never
see a bachelor of three-score again? Go to, i’faith, an
thou wilt needs thrust thy neck into a yoke, wear the
print of it, and sigh away Sundays.”
(Benedick, 1.1, 161-164)

Claudio: “That I love her, I feel.”
Prince: “That she is worthy, I know.”
Benedick: “That I neither feel how she should be
loved nor know how she should be worthy is the
opinion that fire cannot melt   out of me. I will die in
it at the stake.”
(1.1, 166-190)

Don Pedro: “I shall see thee ere I die look pale with
love.”
Benedick: “With anger, with sickness or with hunger,
my lord; not with love.”
(1.1, 202-204)

“But now I am returned, and that war-thoughts
Have left their places vacant, in their rooms
Come thronging soft and delicate desires,
All prompting me how fair young Hero is,
Saying I liked her ere I went to wars.”
(Claudio, 1.1, 249-253)

             “I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a
rose in his grace, and it better fits my blood to be
disdained of all than to fashion a carriage to rob love
from any.”
(Don John, 1.3, 21-23)

“A very forward March chick.”
(Don John, 1.3, 45)

                                                        “He that hath a
beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no
beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a
youth is not for me, and he   that is less than a man, I
am not for him.”
(Beatrice, 2.1, 29-32)

                                                “Adam’s sons are my
brethren, and truly I hold it a sin to match in my
kindred.”
(Beatrice, 2.1, 53-54)

            “He’ll but break a comparison to two on me,
which peradventure not marked, or not laughed at,
strikes him into melancholy, and then there’s a
partridge wing saved, for the fool will eat no supper
that night.”
(Beatrice, 2.1, 126-129)

“Friendship is constant in all other things
Save in the office and affairs of love.
Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues.”
(Claudio, 2.1, 153-155)

“Let every eye negotiate for itself,
And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.”
(Claudio, 2.1, 156-158)

              “while she is here a man may live as quiet in
hell as in a sanctuary, and people sin upon purpose
because they would go thither,”
(Benedick, 2.1, 224-226)

  “No, my lord, unless I might have another for
working days. Your Grace is too costly to wear every
day.”
(Beatrice, 2.1, 286-287)

                                                     “If we can do this,
Cupid is no longer an archer; his glory shall be ours,
for we are the only love-gods.”
(Don Pedro, 2.1, 334-336)

           “But till all graces be in one woman, one
woman shall not come in my grace.”
(Benedick, 2.3, 25-26)

     “Happy are they that hear their detractions and
can put them to mending.”
(Benedick, 2.3, 203-204)

                                                                            “A
man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot
endure in his age.”
(Benedick, 2.3, 210-211)

“But nature never framed a woman’s heart
Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice.
Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
Misprising what they look on, and her wit
Values itself so highly that to her
All matter else seems weak.”
(Hero, 3.1, 49-54)

“Therefore let Benedick, like covered fire,
Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly.”
(Hero, 3.1, 77-78)

    “O, what men dare do! What men may do! What
men daily do, not knowing what they do!”
(Claudio, 4.1, 17-18)

“Give not this rotten orange to your friend.
She’s but the sign and semblance of her honour.”
(Claudio, 4.1, 30-31)

“But fair thee well, most foul, most fair, farewell
Thou pure impiety and impious purity.”
(Claudio, 4.1, 101-102)

“O fate, take not away thy heavy hand.
Death is the fairest cover for her shame
That may be wished for.”
(Leonato, 4.1, 113-115)

    “O she is fallen
Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea
Hath drops too few to wash her clean again,
And salt too little which may season give
To her foul tainted flesh.”
(Leonato, 4.1, 138-142)

    “For so it falls out
That what we have, we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it, but, being lacked and lost,
Why then we rack the value, then we find
The virtue that possession would not show us
Whiles it was ours.”
(Friar, 4.1, 216-221)

                  “But manhood is melted into courtesies,
valour into compliment, and me are only turned into
tongue, and trim ones, too.”
(Beatrice, 4.1, 314-316)

“But there is no such man, for, brother, men
Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief
Which they themselves not feel, but tasting it
Their counsel turns to passion,”
(Leonato, 5.1, 20-23)

                                               “But yet for all that, an
if she did not hate him deadly she would love him
dearly.”
(Don Pedro, 5.1, 167-168)

          “What a pretty thing man is when he goes in
his doublet and hose and leaves off his wit!”
(Don Pedro, 5.1, 189-190)

             “No, I was not born under a rhyming
planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms.”
(Benedick, 5.2, 34-35)

 “Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but
foul breath, and foul breath is noisome, therefore I
will depart unkissed.”
(Beatrice, 5.2, 43-45)

“Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.”
(Benedick, 5.2, 61)

    “Why, what’s the matter
That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?”
(Don Pedro, 5.4, 40-42)

“A miracle! Here’s our own hands against our
hearts.”
(Benedick, 5.4, 91)
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