There are many well-known quotes in Twelfth Night – here we've listed a few of them, in order of appearance in the play.

Twelfth Night 2005
Twelfth Night, 2005, directed by Michael Boyd.
Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

If music be the food of love, play on.
(Orsino, Act 1 Scene 1)

What country, friends, is this? 
(Viola, Act 1 Scene 2)

But I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit. 
(Sir Andrew, Act 1 Scene 3)

I'll do my best 
To woo your lady. – Yet, a barful strife! 
Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife. 
(Viola, Act 1, Scene 4)

Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.
(Feste, Act 1 Scene 5)

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.
(Feste, Act 1 Scene 5)

Make me a willow cabin at your gate, 
And call upon my soul within the house. 
(Viola, Act 1, Scene 5)

How now? 
Even so quickly may one catch the plague?
(Olivia, Act 1 Scene 5)

O time, thou must untangle this, not I. 
It is too hard a knot for me t'untie.
(Viola, Act 2 Scene 2)

Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale? 
(Sir Toby, Act 2, Scene 3)

I was adored once too.
(Sir Andrew, Act 2 Scene 3)

She pined in thought, 
And with a green and yellow melancholy 
She sat like patience on a monument, 
Smiling at grief. 
(Viola, Act 2 Scene 4)

Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.
(Malvolio, Act 2 Scene 5)

Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines everywhere. 
(Feste, Act 3 Scene 1)

If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.
(Fabian, Act 3 Scene 4)

Prove true, imagination, O, prove true, 
That I, dear brother, be now ta'en for you!
(Viola, Act Scene 4)

One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons, 
A natural perspective that is and is not!
(Orsino, Act 5 Scene 1)

And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.
(Feste, Act 5 Scene 1)

I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.
(Malvolio, Act 5 Scene 1)

Cesario, come – 
For so you shall be, while you are a man. 
But when in other habits you are seen, 
Orsino's mistress, and his fancy's queen. 
(Orsino, Act 5 Scene 1)


 

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