William Congreve Quotes

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

They come together like the Coroner's Inquest, to sit upon the murdered reputations of the week.

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

Vile and ingrate! too late thou shalt repent
The base Injustice thou hast done my Love:
Yes, thou shalt know, spite of thy past Distress,
And all those Ills which thou so long hast mourn'd;
Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.

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?

'Tis well enough for a servant to be bred at an University. But the education is a little too pedantic for a gentleman.

Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.

Women are like tricks by sleight of hand,
Which, to admire, we should not understand.

I know that's a secret, for it's whispered every where.

Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first magnitude.