Top 92 Quotes & Sayings by William Congreve
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English poet William Congreve.
Last updated on November 21, 2024.
Invention flags, his brain goes muddy, and black despair succeeds brown study.
Music has charms to sooth a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.
Grief walks upon the heels of pleasure; married in haste, we repent at leisure.
Never go to bed angry, stay up and fight.
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.
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.
No, I'm no enemy to learning; it hurts not me.
A wit should be no more sincere than a woman constant.
Beauty is the lover's gift.
There is in true beauty, as in courage, something which narrow souls cannot dare to admire.
I find we are growing serious, and then we are in great danger of being dull.
Courtship is to marriage, as a very witty prologue to a very dull play.
If there's delight in love, 'Tis when I see that heart, which others bleed for, bleed for me.
You are a woman: you must never speak what you think; your words must contradict your thoughts, but your actions may contradict your words.
Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.
A hungry wolf at all the herd will run, In hopes, through many, to make sure of one.
They are at the end of the gallery; retired to their tea and scandal, according to their ancient custom.
If this be not love, it is madness, and then it is pardonable.
I confess freely to you, I could never look long upon a monkey, without very mortifying reflections.
Wit must be foiled by wit: cut a diamond with a diamond.
Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear.
Say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved.
A little disdain is not amiss; a little scorn is alluring.
They come together like the Coroner's Inquest, to sit upon the murdered reputations of the week.
To find a young fellow that is neither a wit in his own eye, nor a fool in the eye of the world, is a very hard task.
Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.
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.
I know that's a secret, for it's whispered everywhere.
'Tis well enough for a servant to be bred at an University. But the education is a little too pedantic for a gentleman.
He who closes his ears to the views of others shows little confidence in the integrity of his own views.
Love's but a frailty of the mind, When 'tis not with ambition joined.
How hard a thing 'twould be to please you all.
Who pleases one against his will.
It is the business of a comic poet to paint the vices and follies of human kind.
Delay not till tomorrow to be wise; tomorrow's sun to thee may neve rise.
I am a fool, I know it; and yet, Heaven help me, I'm poor enough to be a wit.
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.
Nothing but you can lay hold of my mind, and that can lay hold of nothing but you.
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.
Words are the weak support of cold indifference; love has no language to be heard.
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.
There are times when sense may be unseasonable, as well as truth.
O, she is the antidote to desire.
Women are like tricks by sleight of hand, Which, to admire, we should not understand
There is in true Beauty, as in Courage, somewhat which narrow Souls cannot dare to admire.
Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure; Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.
A little scorn is alluring.
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.
These articles subscribed, if I continue to endure you a little longer, I may by degrees dwindle into wife.
I am always of the opinion with the learned, if they speak first.
He that first cries out stop thief, is often he that has stolen the treasure.
Women like flames have a destroying power; never to be quenched till they themselves devour.
No mask like open truth to cover lies, As to go naked is the best disguise.
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!
Whoever is king, is also the father of his country.
I always take blushing either for a sign of guilt, or of ill breeding.
O fie, miss, you must not kiss and tell.
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.
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.
Music alone with sudden charms can bind The wand'ring sense, and calm the troubled mind.
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