William Congreve Quotes
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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.
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No mask like open truth to cover lies, As to go naked is the best disguise.
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A hungry wolf at all the herd will run, In hopes, through many, to make sure of one.
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Women are like tricks by sleight of hand, Which, to admire, we should not understand
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They come together like the Coroner's Inquest, to sit upon the murdered reputations of the week.
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O, she is the antidote to desire.
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Marriage indeed may qualify the fury of his passion, but it very rarely mends a man's manners.
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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.
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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!
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Thou art a retailer of phrases, and dost deal in remnants of remnants.
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Marriage is honourable, as you say; and if so, wherefore should Cuckoldom be a Discredit, being deriv'd from so honourable a Root?
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Some by experience find those words mis-placed: At leisure married, they repent in haste.
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All well bred persons lie - Besides, you are a woman; you must never speak what you think.
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Women like flames have a destroying power; never to be quenched till they themselves devour.
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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."
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Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear.
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To converse with Scandal is to play at Losing Loadum, you must lose a good name to him, before you can win it for yourself.
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A wit should no more be sincere, than a woman constant; one argues a decay of parts, as to other of beauty.
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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.
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Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.
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Music alone with sudden charms can bind The wand'ring sense, and calm the troubled mind.
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I came up stairs into the world, for I was born in a cellar.
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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.
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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.