'Much Ado About Nothing' Quotes

Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's comedies, with one of the most popular romantic duos of all time. The play has wit, twists, turns — it's a comedy. Here are a few quotes from the play.

Act I

"He hath indeed better bettered expectation than you must expect of me to tell you how." (1.1)

"He is a very valiant trencher-man." (1.1)

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

"In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke." (1.1)

Act II

"Lord! I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face: I hath rather lie in the woollen." (2.1)

"He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man." (2.1)

"Speak low if you speak love." (2.1)

"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 agent." (2.1)

"There was a star danced, and under that was I born." (2.1)

"Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,-
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never." (2.3)

Act III

"Our talk must only be of Benedick.
When I do name him, let it by thy part
To praise him more than ever man did merit:
My talk to thee must be how Benedick
Is sick in love with Beatrice. Of this matter
Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made,
That only wounds by hearsay." (3.1)

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

"If I see any thing tonight why I should not marry her tomorrow, in the congregation, where I should wed, there will I shame her." (3.2)

"I tell this tale vilely—I should first tell thee how the Prince, Claudio, and my master, planted and placed and possessed by my master Don John, saw afar off in the orchard this amiable encounter." (3.3)

Act IV

"There, Leonato, take her back again:
Give not this rotten orange to your friend;
She's but the sign and semblance of her honor." (4.1)

"Your daughter here the princes left for dead,
Let her awhile be secretly kept in,
And publish it that she is dead indeed (4.1)

"She dying, as it must be so maintain'd,
Upon the instant that she was accus'd,
Shall be lamented, pitied, and excus'd
Of every hearer" (4.1)

"I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest." (4.1)

"O that he were here to write me down an ass! But masters, remember that I am an ass: though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass." (4.2)

Act V

"I say thou has belied mine innocent child;
Thy slander hath gone through and through her heart,
And she lies buried with her ancestors--
O! in a tomb where never scandal slept,
Save this of hers, fram'd by thy villainy!" (5.1)

"I have deceived even your very eyes: what your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow fools have brought to light, who in the night overheard me confessing to this man, how Don John your brother incensed me to slander the Lady Hero." (5.1)

"I have drunk poison while he utter'd it." (5.1)

"Though and I are too wise to woo peaceably." (5.2)

"And when I liv'd I was your other wife;
And when you lov'd, you were my other husband." (5.4)

"One Hero died defil'd, but I do live,
And surely as I live, I am a maid." (5.4)

"In brief, since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion." (5.4)