Genuinely Shakespeare: the line is Sebastian’s, spoken to Antonio in Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 3, first printed in the 1623 First Folio. One caveat worth knowing — the Folio prints a short line, “thankes; and euer oft,” and the third “thanks” — the one after “and ever” — that makes the famous triple was supplied by a later editor.
“I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks” I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks. — William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 3 (Sebastian to Antonio); first printed in the First Folio, 1623. The third "thanks" is an editor's completion of a short line in the Folio.
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Evoking the world of William Shakespeare — English playwright & poet. Theme: "I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
Sebastian, broke and grateful, in a street in Illyria
Work
Twelfth Night, or What You Will — Act 3, Scene 3
Speaker
Sebastian, to Antonio (Folger 3.3.14–17)
Written
c. 1601–1602; first printed in the First Folio, 1623
Wording
The Folio reads “thankes; and euer oft”; the third “thanks,” the one after “and ever,” is an editorial completion
My kind Antonio, I can no other answer make but thanks, And thanks, and ever thanks; and oft good turns Are shuffled off with such uncurrent pay. But were my worth, as is my conscience, firm, You should find better dealing.
Act 3, Scene 3
The text as modern editions print it. In the 1623 First Folio the third line is short — the Folio reads “thankes; and euer oft” — and the Folger edition marks the supplied words in half-brackets to show exactly where the repair falls.
Those half-brackets are explained by the Folger textual notes ↗, whose entry for 3.3.16 reads “thanks, and ever thanks; and oft] Ed.; thankes; and euer oft F.” The same page defines F as the First Folio and “Ed.” as an earlier editor of Shakespeare, beginning with Rowe in 1709.
Freely available older texts still show the unrepaired line: the MIT online Twelfth Night ↗ and the Globe text at the Perseus Digital Library ↗ both give “And thanks; and ever … oft good turns,” with a gap where the third “thanks” is supplied elsewhere.
Wikipedia’s article on the play ↗ dates its composition to around 1601–1602, records the first documented public performance on 2 February 1602 (noted in the diary of the law student John Manningham), and confirms the play was not published until its inclusion in the 1623 First Folio.
✓Public domain
Twelfth Night was written around 1601–1602 and first printed in the 1623 First Folio, so the play is centuries into the public domain. The familiar “and ever thanks” reading is an editorial completion that entered the text through the post-1709 editorial tradition — the Folger credits only “Ed.,” which it defines as an editor from Rowe’s 1709 edition onward — so that wording is long out of copyright too. The notes, glosses and layout of any modern edition remain its publisher’s.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
The author is right — the wording is part editor
This one is not a false credit. Shakespeare wrote the passage and it sits in a play we can point to. What deserves a footnote is the quotation itself: the triple “thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks” is the reading of modern edited texts, not of the only early printing we have.
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The wordingAn unnamed later editor, not the 1623 Folio emendation
The Folger edition’s collation for this line reads “thanks, and ever thanks; and oft] Ed.; thankes; and euer oft F” — F being the First Folio, and “Ed.” meaning an earlier editor of Shakespeare, which the same page defines as beginning with Rowe in 1709. The Folio’s reading already contains the second “thanks”; it is the third, after “and ever,” that was added to complete a short line, and no single editor is credited with it: see the Folger textual notes ↗.
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The text you find onlineOlder public-domain editions, which print less variant
Not every free text agrees with the popular quotation. The MIT online Twelfth Night ↗ gives the shorter line, marking a gap where scholarly editions supply the third “thanks,” while Project Gutenberg’s text ↗ prints the fuller emended reading.
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The speakerNobody in particular — the line circulates with no character attached who said it
The line is usually circulated as a bare Shakespeare thank-you tag, with no play or character attached. It belongs to Sebastian, addressing his rescuer Antonio, in Act 3, Scene 3 ↗.
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The senseThe cropped version context
Stopping at “ever thanks” turns a wry remark into a greeting card. Sebastian’s sentence runs on: “and oft good turns / Are shuffled off with such uncurrent pay” — kindness repaid in worthless coin — as the Internet Shakespeare Editions text ↗ shows.
Sebastian has just been pulled out of a shipwreck and is being followed around a strange city by the man who saved him. He has no money, no standing and nothing to give back, which is exactly why the speech turns into an accounting metaphor: good turns, he says, get “shuffled off with such uncurrent pay” — settled up in coin that is no longer legal tender. Thanks is the only currency in his pocket, and he knows it is worth less than what he owes.
That is what the internet’s favourite thank-you line is actually about. Quoted alone it reads as warm, uncomplicated gratitude; in the play it opens a rueful thought about how badly kindness tends to get repaid, and Sebastian promises that if his means matched his conscience, Antonio “should find better dealing.”
…and oft good turns are shuffled off with such uncurrent pay.
Read the full story
The passage is also a small lesson in how Shakespeare reaches us. Twelfth Night was never printed while he lived, so the 1623 First Folio is the sole authority for every word of it. At this point the Folio’s verse comes up short, and editors from the eighteenth century onward completed the line by repeating “thanks” — a repair so natural that it became the quotation everyone knows.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
William Shakespeare (c. 1564–1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor, and the most quoted writer in the language. Twelfth Night, written around 1601–1602, was never printed in his lifetime: it survives because two of his colleagues in the King’s Men, John Heminges and Henry Condell, gathered his plays into the First Folio of 1623. That single volume is the only authority for every word of this play — and the reason editors have been quietly repairing its damaged verse ever since.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 3
William Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night, or What You Will,” Act 3, Scene 3 (written c. 1601–1602; first printed in the First Folio, 1623). The received reading “and thanks, and ever thanks; and oft” is an editorial emendation of the Folio’s “thankes; and euer oft”; see Twelfth Night, Folger Shakespeare Library digital edition, textual note 3.3.16.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks’?” Last verified 29 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/i-can-no-other-answer-make-but-thanks-and-thanks-and-ever/