William Congreve

William Congreve (24 January 1670 – 19 January 1729) was an English playwright and poet.

Quotes



 * Ah! Whither, whither shall I fly, A poor unhappy Maid; To hopeless Love and Misery By my own Heart betray’d?
 * Incognita: Or, Love and Duty Reconcil'd (1692)


 * Careless she is with artful care, Affecting to seem unaffected.
 * "Amoret", line 7 (1710)


 * Invention flags, his brain goes muddy, And black despair succeeds brown study.
 * "An Impossible Thing", line 105 (1720)


 * Defer not till tomorrow to be wise, Tomorrow's sun to thee may never rise.
 * "Letter to Cobham", line 61. Compare: "Be wise to-day, 't is madness to defer", Edward Young, Night Thoughts, Night i. line 390


 * 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.
 * "Song"; Poetical Miscellanies: The Fifth Part (1704), p. 362

The Old Bachelor (1693)

 * The Old Bachelor


 * 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.
 * Act I, scene iii


 * Hannibal was a very pretty fellow in those days.
 * Act II, scene 2


 * I find we are growing serious, and then we are in great danger of being dull.
 * Act II, scene vii


 * If this be not love, it is madness, and then it is pardonable.
 * Act III, scene x


 * Eternity was in that moment.
 * Act IV, scene vii


 * Men are apt to offend ('tis true) where they find most goodness to forgive.
 * Act IV, scene xi


 * Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure; Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.
 * Act V, scene viii. Compare: "Who wooed in haste, and means to wed at leisure", William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act iii, scene 2

The Double Dealer (1694)

 * Full text online


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


 * Retired to their tea and scandal, according to their ancient custom.
 * Act I, scene i


 * Though marriage makes man and wife one flesh, it leaves 'em still two fools.
 * Act II, scene iii


 * Now will I, in my old way, discover the whole and real truth of the matter to him, that he may not suspect one word on’t.
 * No mask like open truth to cover lies, As to go naked is the best disguise.
 * Act V, scene iv

Love for Love (1695)

 * Full text online


 * Thou liar of the first magnitude.
 * Act II, scene ii


 * I warrant you, if he danced till doomsday, he thought I was to pay the piper.
 * Act II, scene ii


 * Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first magnitude.
 * Act II, scene v


 * I came up stairs into the world, for I was born in a cellar.
 * Act II, scene vii; comparable to: "Born in a cellar, and living in a garret", Samuel Foote, The Author, act 2; "Born in the garret, in the kitchen bred", Lord Byron, A Sketch


 * O fie, miss, you must not kiss and tell.
 * Act II, scene x


 * I know that's a secret, for it's whispered every where.
 * Act III, scene iii


 * Women are like tricks by sleight of hand, Which, to admire, we should not understand.
 * Act IV, scene iii


 * Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.
 * Act IV, scene xx


 * 'Tis well enough for a servant to be bred at an University. But the education is a little too pedantic for a gentleman.
 * Act V, scene iii

The Mourning Bride (1697)

 * 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?
 * Act I, scene i; the first lines of this passage are often rendered in modern spelling as "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast", or misquoted as: "Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast".


 * 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.
 * Act III, scene viii; often paraphrased: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". A similar line occurs in Love's Last Shift, by Colley Cibber, act iv.: "We shall find no fiend in hell can match the fury of a disappointed woman".


 * For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds, And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.
 * Act V, scene 12

The Way of the World (1700)

 * Full text online


 * They come together like the Coroner's Inquest, to sit upon the murdered reputations of the week.
 * Act I, scene i


 * Say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved.
 * Act II, scene i. Precedent for Alfred Tennyson's more famous: "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all"


 * Love's but a frailty of the mind, When 'tis not with ambition joined.
 * Act III, scene xii


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


 * I nauseate walking; 'tis a country diversion, I loathe the country.
 * Act IV, scene v


 * 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.
 * Act IV, scene v


 * 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.
 * Act IV, scene ix


 * O, she is the antidote to desire.
 * Act IV, scene xiv

Quotes About William Congreve

 * Mr Congreve... would make many brilliant hits – half a dozen in a night sometimes – but like sharpshooters, when they had fired their shot they were obliged to retire under cover till their pieces were loaded again.
 * William Makepeace Thackeray,  (1852)

Misattributed

 * Never go to bed angry, stay up and fight.
 * Phyllis Diller, as quoted in Getting Through to the Man You Love : The No-Nonsense, No-Nagging Guide for Women (1999) by Michele Weiner-Davis, p. 151