“Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.”
Permalink: William Shakespeare
About this quote
Feste says it to Sir Toby, who has been trying to marry him off, and the clown's remedy is a gallows rather than a wedding. Shakespeare gives the line to the one character who is not after anything, which is why it reads as comedy rather than cruelty.
Source: Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5