3 quotations linked to Twelfth Night by or associated with William Shakespeare, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Love, friendship, gratitude, desire, identity, deception, humor and the difference between memorable dramatic language and author autobiography.
Dates represented in this collection: c. 1601 · c. 1601–1602. Individual quotation notes provide the most specific context for a passage.
Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.
“If music be the food of love, play on.”
Love is treated as an appetite that can be intensified through beauty, sensation, and repeated emotional stimulation.
Source note: Act 1, Scene 1; Orsino opens the play by comparing music and appetite.
“I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks.”
Sebastian responds to Antonio’s costly loyalty with repeated thanks while also admitting that words alone are an inadequate repayment for practical care.
Source note: Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 3, Project Gutenberg #1526. Sebastian says this to Antonio after Antonio explains that fear for Sebastian’s safety drove him to follow despite the danger of returning to Illyria; it is character dialogue, not Shakespeare autobiography.
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.”
The sentence distinguishes inherited status, earned achievement, and unexpected responsibility, making greatness look less like one single path.
Source note: Act 2, Scene 5; the line appears in the forged letter read by Malvolio.