Much Ado About Nothing

"To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature."

"The most senseless and fit man."

"You shall comprehend all vagrom men."

"2 Watch: How if a’ will not stand? Dogberry: Why, then, take no note of him, but let him go; and presently call the rest of the watch together, and thank God you are rid of a knave."

"Is most tolerable, and not to be endured."

"Dogberry: Well, you are to call at all the ale-houses, and bid those that are drunk get them to bed. Watch: How if they will not? Dogberry: Why, then, let them alone till they are sober: if they make you not then the better answer, you may say they are not the men you took them for."

"They that touch pitch will be defiled."

"The most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is to let him show himself what he is, and steal out of your company."

"Verges: If you hear a child cry in the night, you must call to the nurse and bid her still it. Watch: How if the nurse be asleep and will not hear us? Dogberry: Why, then, depart in peace, and let the child wake her with crying; for the ewe that will not hear her lamb when it baes will never answer a calf when he bleats."

"I know that Deformed."

"Borachio: Seest thou not, I say, what a deformed thief this fashion is? how giddily a’ turns about all the hot bloods between fourteen and five-and-thirty? sometimes fashioning them like Pharaoh’s soldiers in the reeky painting, sometime like god Bel’s priests in the old church-window, sometime like the shaven Hercules in the smirched worm-eaten tapestry, where his codpiece seems as massy as his club? Conrade: All this I see; and I see that the fashion wears out more apparel than the man."

"I thank God I am as honest as any man living that is an old man and no honester than I."

"Comparisons are odorous."

"If I were as tedious as a king, I could find it in my heart to bestow it all of your worship."

"A good old man, sir; he will be talking: as they say, When the age is in, the wit is out."

"O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do, not knowing what they do!"

"O, what authority and show of truth Can cunning sin cover itself withal!"

"I never tempted her with word too large; But, as a brother to his sister, show’d Bashful sincerity and comely love."

"I have mark’d A thousand blushing apparitions To start into her face; a thousand innocent shames In angel whiteness beat away those blushes."

"For it so falls out That what we have we prize not to the worth Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack’d and lost, Why, then we rack the value, then we find The virtue that possession would not show us Whiles it was ours."

"The idea of her life shall sweetly creep Into his study of imagination; And every lovely organ of her life Shall come apparell’d in more precious habit, More moving-delicate and full of life, Into the eye and prospect of his soul."

"I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?"

"Is our whole dissembly appeared?"

"Masters, it is proved already that you are little better than false knaves; and it will go near to be thought so shortly."

"Yea, marry, that's the eftest way."

"Flat burglary, as ever was committed."

"O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this."

"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."

"A fellow that hath had losses; and one that hath two gowns, and every thing handsome about him."

"Patch grief with proverbs."

"Men Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief Which they themselves not feel."

"Charm ache with air, and agony with words."

"’Tis all men’s office to speak patience To those that wring under the load of sorrow, But no man’s virtue nor sufficiency, To be so moral when he shall endure The like himself."

"Therein do men from children nothing differ."

"For there was never yet philosopher That could endure the toothache patiently, However they have writ the style of gods, And made a push at chance and sufferance."

"Some of us will smart for it."

"In a false quarrel there is no true valour."

"What though care killed a cat."

"Don Pedro: Officers, what offence have these men done? Dogberry: Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves. Don Pedro: First, I ask thee what they have done; thirdly, I ask thee what’s their offence; sixth and lastly, why they are committed; and, to conclude, what you lay to their charge."

"I was not born under a rhyming planet."

"Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will depart unkissed."

"Done to death by slanderous tongues."

"Get thee a wife, get thee a wife: there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn."