Quotes from Twelfth Night

24 notable lines from William Shakespeare · c. 1601

If music be the food of love, play on.

Orsino, Twelfth Night
  1. If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.

    Orsino, opening line, Act I, scene 1
  2. Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.

    Malvolio (reading), Twelfth Night
  3. Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.

    Malvolio, reading Maria's forged letter, Act II, scene 5
  4. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.

    Malvolio, reading Maria's forged letter, Act II, scene 5
  5. I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you!

    Malvolio, Twelfth Night
  6. I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you.

    Malvolio, exit line, Act V, scene 1
  7. Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

    Sir Toby Belch to Malvolio, Act II, scene 3
  8. And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.

    Feste, Act V, scene 1
  9. Make me a willow cabin at your gate, And call upon my soul within the house; Write loyal cantons of contemned love And sing them loud even in the dead of night.

    Viola (as Cesario) to Olivia, Act I, scene 5
  10. She never told her love, But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought, And with a green and yellow melancholy She sat like patience on a monument, Smiling at grief.

    Viola (as Cesario), Act II, scene 4
  11. I am not what I am.

    Viola (as Cesario) to Olivia, Act III, scene 1
  12. O mistress mine, where are you roaming? O, stay and hear; your true love's coming, That can sing both high and low.

    Feste's song, Act II, scene 3
  13. Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.

    Feste, Act I, scene 5
  14. I was adored once too.

    Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Act II, scene 3
  15. Journeys end in lovers meeting, Every wise man's son doth know.

    Feste's song, Act II, scene 3
  16. If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.

    Fabian, Act III, scene 4
  17. What is love? 'Tis not hereafter; Present mirth hath present laughter; What's to come is still unsure.

    Feste's song, Act II, scene 3
  18. Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines every where.

    Feste, Act III, scene 1
  19. Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.

    Olivia to Viola (as Cesario), Act III, scene 1
  20. Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.

    Feste, Act I, scene 5
  21. Even so quickly may one catch the plague?

    Olivia, Act I, scene 5
  22. Not to be abed after midnight is to be up betimes.

    Sir Toby Belch, Act II, scene 3
  23. When that I was and a little tiny boy, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, A foolish thing was but a toy, For the rain it raineth every day.

    Feste's closing song, Act V, scene 1