1.
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.
William Congreve
2.
Music has charms to sooth a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.
William Congreve
3.
Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear.
William Congreve
4.
Women are like tricks by sleight of hand, Which, to admire, we should not understand
William Congreve
5.
Say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved.
William Congreve
6.
He who closes his ears to the views of others shows little confidence in the integrity of his own views.
William Congreve
7.
'Tis well enough for a servant to be bred at an University. But the education is a little too pedantic for a gentleman.
William Congreve
8.
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.
William Congreve
9.
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.
William Congreve
10.
Thou art a retailer of phrases, and dost deal in remnants of remnants.
William Congreve
11.
Nothing but you can lay hold of my mind, and that can lay hold of nothing but you.
William Congreve
12.
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.
William Congreve
13.
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.
William Congreve
14.
I find we are growing serious, and then we are in great danger of being dull.
William Congreve
15.
Turn pimp, flatterer, quack, lawyer, parson, be chaplain to an atheist, or stallion to an old woman, anything but a poet; for a poet is worse, more servile, timorous and fawning than any I have named.
William Congreve
16.
Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.
William Congreve
17.
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.
William Congreve
18.
There are times when sense may be unseasonable, as well as truth.
William Congreve
19.
No mask like open truth to cover lies, As to go naked is the best disguise.
William Congreve
20.
There is in true Beauty, as in Courage, somewhat which narrow Souls cannot dare to admire.
William Congreve
21.
Women like flames have a destroying power; never to be quenched till they themselves devour.
William Congreve
22.
Delay not till tomorrow to be wise; tomorrow's sun to thee may neve rise.
William Congreve
23.
Courtship is to marriage, as a very witty prologue to a very dull play.
William Congreve
24.
You are a woman: you must never speak what you think; your words must contradict your thoughts, but your actions may contradict your words.
William Congreve
25.
Wit must be foiled by wit: cut a diamond with a diamond.
William Congreve
26.
A wit should no more be sincere, than a woman constant; one argues a decay of parts, as to other of beauty.
William Congreve
27.
Thus in this sad, but oh, too pleasing state! my soul can fix upon nothing but thee; thee it contemplates, admires, adores, nay depends on, trusts on you alone.
William Congreve
28.
Whoever is king, is also the father of his country.
William Congreve
29.
They are at the end of the gallery; retired to their tea and scandal, according to their ancient custom.
William Congreve
30.
Invention flags, his brain goes muddy,
And black despair succeeds brown study.
William Congreve
31.
Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast...
William Congreve
32.
Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure; Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.
William Congreve
33.
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.
William Congreve
34.
I confess freely to you, I could never look long upon a monkey, without very mortifying reflections.
William Congreve
35.
A little scorn is alluring.
William Congreve
36.
I came up stairs into the world, for I was born in a cellar.
William Congreve
37.
No, I'm no enemy to learning; it hurts not me.
William Congreve
38.
A woman only obliges a man to secrecy, that she may have the pleasure of telling herself.
William Congreve
39.
If there's delight in love, 'Tis when I see that heart, which others bleed for, bleed for me.
William Congreve
40.
O fie, miss, you must not kiss and tell.
William Congreve
41.
A hungry wolf at all the herd will run, In hopes, through many, to make sure of one.
William Congreve
42.
Beauty is the lover's gift.
William Congreve
43.
O, she is the antidote to desire.
William Congreve
44.
How hard a thing 'twould be to please you all.
William Congreve
45.
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."
William Congreve
46.
There is nothing more unbecoming a man of quality than to laugh ... 'tis such a vulgar expression of the passion!
William Congreve
47.
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.
William Congreve
48.
It is the business of a comic poet to paint the vices and follies of human kind.
William Congreve
49.
Music alone with sudden charms can bind The wand'ring sense, and calm the troubled mind.
William Congreve
50.
These articles subscribed, if I continue to endure you a little longer, I may by degrees dwindle into wife.
William Congreve
