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William Congreve

playwright, poet, writer, translator, engineer, librettist

1670  – 1729

William Congreve was an English playwright, satirist and poet. He spent most of his early career between London and Dublin, during which time he was an apprentice to the English poet John Dryden and became noted for his highly polished style of writing. Regarded by literary critics as the most influential playwright of the Restoration era, Congreve played a major role in shaping English comedy. The popularity of his plays in the late 17th and early 18th centuries was central to the development of satirical comedy of manners, and he became recognised as a seminal figure of Restoration literature. He is best remembered for his quotes, such as, "O fie, miss, you must not kiss and tell", and "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned".

All Quotes by William Congreve

“Never go to bed angry, stay up and fight.”
— William Congreve
“No, I'm no enemy to learning; it hurts not me.”
— William Congreve
“Ah! Whither, whither shall I fly,By my own Heart betray’d?”
— William Congreve
“Careless she is with artful care,Affecting to seem unaffected.”
— William Congreve
“Invention flags, his brain goes muddy,And black despair succeeds brown study.”
— William Congreve
“Defer not till tomorrow to be wise,Tomorrow's sun to thee may never rise.”
— William Congreve
“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
“Hannibal was a very pretty fellow in those days.”
— William Congreve
“I find we are growing serious, and then we are in great danger of being dull.”
— William Congreve
“Eternity was in that moment.”
— William Congreve
“If this be not love, it is madness, and then it is pardonable.”
— William Congreve
“Men are apt to offend ('tis true) where they find most goodness to forgive.”
— William Congreve
“Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure; Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.”
— William Congreve
“It is the business of a comic poet to paint the vices and follies of human kind.”
— William Congreve
“Retired to their tea and scandal, according to their ancient custom.”
— William Congreve
“Though marriage makes man and wife one flesh, it leaves 'em still two fools.”
— William Congreve
“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.”
— William Congreve
“Thou liar of the first magnitude.”
— William Congreve
“I warrant you, if he danced till doomsday, he thought I was to pay the piper.”
— William Congreve
“Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first magnitude.”
— William Congreve
“I came up stairs into the world, for I was born in a cellar.”
— William Congreve
“O fie, miss, you must not kiss and tell.”
— William Congreve
“I know that's a secret, for it's whispered every where.”
— William Congreve
“Women are like tricks by sleight of hand,Which, to admire, we should not understand.”
— William Congreve
“Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.”
— William Congreve
“'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
“Vile and ingrate! too late thou shalt repent Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.”
— William Congreve
“They come together like the Coroner's Inquest, to sit upon the murdered reputations of the week.”
— William Congreve
“Say what you will, tis better to be left than never to have been loved.”
— William Congreve
“Love's but a frailty of the mind,When 'tis not with ambition joined.”
— William Congreve
“If there's delight in love, 'tis when I see That heart which others bleed for, bleed for me.”
— William Congreve
“I nauseate walking; 'tis a country diversion, I loathe the country.”
— William Congreve
“Let us be very strange and well-bred:And as well-bred as if we were not married at all.”
— William Congreve
“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.”
— William Congreve
“O, she is the antidote to desire.”
— William Congreve
“Courtship is to marriage, as a very witty prologue to a very dull play.”
— William Congreve
“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.”
— William Congreve
“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.”
— William Congreve
“There is in true beauty, as in courage, something which narrow souls cannot dare to admire.”
— William Congreve
“Say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved.”
— William Congreve
“Beauty is the lover's gift.”
— William Congreve
“Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear.”
— William Congreve