William Congreve Quotes

You'll grow devilish fat upon this paper-diet!

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.

O, she is the antidote to desire.

Say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved.

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

Pious Selinda goes to Pray’rs, If I but ask the Favour;
And yet the tender Fool’s in Tears, When she believes I’ll leave her.Wou’d I were free from Restraint, Or else had Hopes to win her;
Wou’d she cou’d make of me a Saint, Or I of her a Sinner.

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.

O, nothing is more alluring than a levee from a couch in some confusion: it shows the foot to advantage, and furnishes with blushes, and recomposing airs beyond comparison. — Lady Wishfort

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

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
I've read, that things inanimate have mov'd,
And, as with living Souls, have been inform'd,
By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound.
What then am I? Am I more senseless grown
Than Trees, or Flint? O force of constant Woe!
'Tis not in Harmony to calm my Griefs.
Anselmo sleeps, and is at Peace; last Night
The silent Tomb receiv'd the good Old King;
He and his Sorrows now are safely lodg'd
Within its cold, but hospitable Bosom.
Why am not I at Peace?

Defer not till tomorrow to be wise,
Tomorrow's sun to thee may never rise.

For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds, And though late, a sure reward succeeds.

Thou art a retailer of phrases, and dost deal in remnants of remnants, like a maker of pincushions; thou art in truth (metaphorically speaking) a speaker of shorthand.

Well, I shall understand your lingo one of these days, cousin.