Best 72 quotes of William Congreve on MyQuotes

William Congreve

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    William Congreve

    A hungry wolf at all the herd will run, In hopes, through many, to make sure of one.

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    William Congreve

    A wit should no more be sincere, than a woman constant; one argues a decay of parts, as to other of beauty.

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    William Congreve

    A woman only obliges a man to secrecy, that she may have the pleasure of telling herself.

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    William Congreve

    Blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds, and though a late, a sure reward succeeds.

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    William Congreve

    But say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved. To pass our youth in dull indifference, to refuse the sweets of life because they once must leave us, is as preposterous as to wish to have been born old, because we one day must be old.

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    William Congreve

    Come, come, leave business to idlers, and wisdom to fools: they have need of 'em: wit be my faculty, and pleasure my occupation, and let father Time shake his glass.

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    William Congreve

    Courtship is to marriage, as a very witty prologue to a very dull play.

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    William Congreve

    Defer not till to-morrow to be wise, To-morrow's Sun to thee may never rise; Or should to-morrow chance to cheer thy sight With her enlivening and unlook'd for light, How grateful will appear her dawning rays! As favours unexpected doubly please.

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    William Congreve

    Delay not till tomorrow to be wise; tomorrow's sun to thee may neve rise.

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    William Congreve

    Every man plays the fool once in his live, but to marry is playing the fool all one's life long.

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    William Congreve

    Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear.

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    William Congreve

    Guilt is ever at a loss, and confusion waits upon it; when innocence and bold truth are always ready for expression.

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    William Congreve

    He that first cries out stop thief, is often he that has stolen the treasure.

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    William Congreve

    He who closes his ears to the views of others shows little confidence in the integrity of his own views.

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    William Congreve

    Honor is a public enemy, and conscience a domestic, and he that would secure his pleasure, must pay a tribute to one and go halves with t'other.

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    William Congreve

    I always take blushing either for a sign of guilt, or of ill breeding.

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    William Congreve

    I am a fool, I know it; and yet, Heaven help me, I'm poor enough to be a wit.

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    William Congreve

    I came up stairs into the world, for I was born in a cellar.

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    William Congreve

    I confess freely to you, I could never look long upon a monkey, without very mortifying reflections.

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    William Congreve

    If happiness in self-content is placed, The wise are wretched, and fools only blessed.

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    William Congreve

    I find we are growing serious, and then we are in great danger of being dull.

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    William Congreve

    If there's delight in love, 'Tis when I see that heart, which others bleed for, bleed for me.

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    William Congreve

    If this be not love, it is madness, and then it is pardonable.

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    William Congreve

    I know a lady that loves to talk so incessantly, she won't give an echo fair play; she has that everlasting rotation of tongue that an echo must wait till she dies before it can catch her last words!

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    William Congreve

    I nauseate walking; 'tis a country diversion, I loathe the country.

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    William Congreve

    In my conscience I believe the baggage loves me, for she never speaks well of me herself, nor suffers any body else to rail at me.

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    William Congreve

    Invention flags, his brain goes muddy, And black despair succeeds brown study.

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    William Congreve

    It is the business of a comic poet to paint the vices and follies of human kind.

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    William Congreve

    Let us be very strange and well-bred:Let us be as strange as if we had been married a great while;And as well-bred as if we were not married at all.

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    William Congreve

    Love's but a frailty of the mind, When 'tis not with ambition joined.

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    William Congreve

    Love's but the frailty of the mind, When 'tis not with ambition joined; A sickly flame, which if not fed expires; And feeding, wastes in self-consuming fires.

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    William Congreve

    Marriage indeed may qualify the fury of his passion, but it very rarely mends a man's manners.

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    William Congreve

    Marriage is honourable, as you say; and if so, wherefore should Cuckoldom be a Discredit, being deriv'd from so honourable a Root?

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    William Congreve

    Men are apt to offend ('tis true) where they find most goodness to forgive.

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    William Congreve

    Mr Witwould: "Pray, madam, do you pin up your hair with all your letters? I find I must keep copies." Mrs Millamant: "Only with those in verse.... I never pin up my hair with prose.

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    William Congreve

    Music alone with sudden charms can bind The wand'ring sense, and calm the troubled mind.

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    William Congreve

    Music has charms to sooth a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.

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    William Congreve

    Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak. I've read that things inanimate have moved, and, as with living souls, have been inform'd, by magic numbers and persuasive sound.

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    William Congreve

    Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast...

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    William Congreve

    No, I'm no enemy to learning; it hurts not me.

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    William Congreve

    No mask like open truth to cover lies, As to go naked is the best disguise.

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    William Congreve

    Nothing but you can lay hold of my mind, and that can lay hold of nothing but you.

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    William Congreve

    O ay, letters - I had letters - I am persecuted with letters - I hate letters - nobody knows how to write letters; and yet one has 'em, one does not know why - they serve one to pin up one's hair.

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    William Congreve

    One minute gives invention to destroy; What to rebuild, will a whole age employ.

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    William Congreve

    O, nothing is more alluring than a levee from a couch in some confusion.

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    William Congreve

    O, she is the antidote to desire.

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    William Congreve

    She likes herself, yet others hates, For that which in herself she prizes; And while she laughs at them, forgets She is the thing that she despises.

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    William Congreve

    She once used me with that insolence, that in revenge I took her to pieces; sifted her, and separated her failings; I studied 'em, and got 'em by rote. The catalogue was so large, that I was not without hopes, one day or other to hate her heartily.

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    William Congreve

    Some by experience find those words mis-placed: At leisure married, they repent in haste.

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    William Congreve

    There are come Critics so with Spleen diseased, They scarcely come inclining to be pleased: And sure he must have more than mortal Skill, Who please one against his Will.