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Who really said it

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt

Written by William Shakespeare 1564–1616 · English playwright and poet · spoken in the play by Lucio
Verified Free to reuse

Real, and pinned to one text: it is Lucio’s answer to Isabella in Measure for Measure, Act 1, scene 4, when she hesitates — “My power? Alas, I doubt—” — over whether she can save her condemned brother. The play was first published in the 1623 First Folio ↗, which reads “And makes vs loose the good we oft might win”; the familiar “make us lose” is the modernised editorial reading, not a fabrication.

Last verified 29 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt” Lucio, in William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act 1, scene 4. First printed in the First Folio, 1623, which reads "And makes vs loose the good we oft might win." Verified at quotle.info

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In context

Evoking the world of William Shakespeare — English playwright, poet and actor. Theme: "Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt". 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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Provenance

The source

Work
Measure for Measure, Act 1, scene 4
Speaker
Lucio, to Isabella at the convent
First printed
First Folio, London, 1623
Folio reading
“And makes vs loose the good we oft might win, / By fearing to attempt:”

ISABELLA
My power? Alas, I doubt—

LUCIO
Our doubts are traitors
And makes us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo
And let him learn to know, when maidens sue
Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as freely theirs
As they themselves would owe them. Act 1, scene 4

Quoted from the Folger Shakespeare’s modern-spelling text ↗, which keeps the Folio’s “makes”. Other modern editions regularise it to “make”, which is the form that circulates.

First Folio facsimile, 1623
Read the 1623 First Folio in facsimile
Folger Shakespeare: Measure for Measure, Act 1, scene 4

How we know

  • The Internet Shakespeare Editions old-spelling transcription of the 1623 First Folio ↗ gives Lucio’s lines as “Our doubts are traitors / And makes vs loose the good we oft might win, / By fearing to attempt:” — “loose” is simply the period spelling of “lose”.
  • The Folger Shakespeare’s modern text ↗ places the speech in Act 1, scene 4 and keeps “makes us lose”, with Lucio answering Isabella’s “My power? Alas, I doubt—”.
  • Wikiquote ↗ and Open Source Shakespeare ↗ both print the regularised “make us lose” and credit the speech to Lucio — so the popular wording is a scholarly editorial reading, not an internet mangling.
  • By the middle of the twentieth century the line was circulating as a free-standing maxim: the Smithsonian American Art Museum holds a 1952 Joseph Low design for the Container Corporation of America’s Great Ideas of Western Man ↗ series titled with the “And make us lose” wording, credited to Shakespeare with no play named.
Public domain

Measure for Measure was first published in 1623 in the First Folio ↗ and there is no earlier printing, so both the Folio wording and the standard modernised wording of these three lines have been in the public domain in the United States for centuries. Only a present-day editor’s added apparatus — notes, glosses, commentary — would carry any rights of its own.

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

What usually goes wrong

This is not a fake — Shakespeare wrote it, and the play is the right play. What gets lost is one word and one speaker, and the second loss changes the meaning more than people expect.

Almost every modern reprint mis-worded

The 1623 Folio reads “And makes vs loose the good we oft might win” (old-spelling transcription ↗). Editors split: the Folger ↗ keeps “makes”, while Open Source Shakespeare ↗ regularises it to “make” to agree with plural “doubts”. The popular version follows the second.

Shakespeare, in his own voice context stripped

It is not an authorial maxim. It is a line of persuasion spoken by Lucio, who has just come to the convent to tell Isabella that her brother Claudio is condemned and that she is the only one who might sway the deputy Angelo (Act 1, scene 4 ↗). He is arguing her out of a hesitation, and his advice sets the play’s disaster in motion.

Quote aggregators incomplete credit

Goodreads ↗ credits it to “William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure” and The Quotations Page ↗ adds “Act 1 scene 4” — but neither names Lucio, so a reader has no way to tell it is a character’s pitch rather than the playwright’s creed.

Shakespeare wrote it, in Measure for Measure, Act 1, scene 4, first printed in the First Folio of 1623 — and the man who says it is Lucio, not Shakespeare ↗.

Context

Why it matters

It reads like a motivational poster now, and it has been one since at least 1952. In the play it is a sales pitch. Isabella is a novice about to take vows with the votarists of Saint Clare ↗ when Lucio arrives with news that her brother Claudio has been sentenced to death for getting Juliet pregnant before their marriage, and that she alone might talk the new deputy Angelo out of it.

She doubts she has any power. Lucio tells her doubts are traitors, and follows it immediately with a line about how men “give like gods” when maidens ask. She goes — and Angelo, in the Folger’s summary of the play, “attempts to extort sex from her” ↗. The encouragement is what opens the door.

In the play it is not a maxim. It is Lucio talking a hesitant novice into a room with Angelo.

The textual detail: “makes” or “make”?

Measure for Measure exists in only one early printing, so there is nothing to compare the Folio against. The Folger notes that the 1623 text “serves as the source for all subsequent editions of the play” — which means every modern reading of these lines is an editor’s decision about a single surviving witness.

The Folio’s “And makes vs loose” pairs a plural subject with a singular verb, common enough in the period. Editors who print “make” are smoothing the grammar; editors who print “makes” are leaving the Folio alone. Both are defensible, and the popular quotation happens to follow the smoothed version.

One more wrinkle for anyone chasing the citation: the Folio divides Act 1 differently from modern editions, so old-spelling transcriptions place this speech in 1.5 rather than 1.4 ↗. Same speech, different numbering.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Courage Doubt Failure

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Measure for Measure, Act 1, scene 4folger.edu

The Folger Shakespeare's free modern-spelling text of the scene, with Lucio's speech answering Isabella's "My power? Alas, I doubt—".
Measure for Measure (Folio, 1623), old-spelling textinternetshakespeare.uvic.ca

Internet Shakespeare Editions' old-spelling transcription of the First Folio, edited by Kristin Lucas, with links to Folio facsimiles.
Wikiquote: Measure for Measureen.wikiquote.org

Sourced quotation list giving the line to Lucio at Act I, scene iv, in the regularised "make us lose" form.
Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies (1623), in facsimilearchive.org

Freely viewable 1910 Methuen facsimile of the First Folio, imprint "Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount, 1623" — the play's first and only early printing.
Measure for Measure, Act 1, scene 4 (searchable text)opensourceshakespeare.org

Line-numbered public-domain text printing the regularised "And make us lose the good we oft might win".
Joseph Low, "Our doubts are traitors..." (1952)americanart.si.edu

Smithsonian American Art Museum record for a Great Ideas of Western Man design that put the modernised wording into mid-century American advertising.

The real author

About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

1564–1616 · English playwright, poet and actor

Shakespeare was baptised in Stratford-upon-Avon on 26 April 1564 and died on 23 April 1616 at the age of 52; his surviving work runs to some 39 plays, 154 sonnets and three long narrative poems. Measure for Measure, written around 1603–04, belongs to the run of uncomfortable comedies where the jokes and the moral horror share a stage. He is a magnet for invented quotations precisely because so much of what he did write sounds quotable — which makes the genuine lines worth pinning to a scene.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Cite this

William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, act 1, sc. 4, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount, 1623). Folio reading: "And makes vs loose the good we oft might win, / By fearing to attempt." Modern-spelling text: The Folger Shakespeare, folger.edu.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt’?” Last verified 29 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/our-doubts-are-traitors-and-make-us-lose-the-good-we-oft/

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