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Wit must be foiled by wit: cut a diamond with a diamond.

William Congreve

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William Congreve
Age: 58 †
Born: 1670
Born: January 24
Died: 1729
Died: January 19
Engineer
Librettist
Playwright
Poet
Translator
Writer
Foiled
Jewelry
Diamond
Wit
Cutting
Must

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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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Courtship is to marriage, as a very witty prologue to a very dull play.
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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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Honor is a public enemy, and conscience a domestic, and he that would secure his pleasure, must pay a tribute to one and go halves with t'other.
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I came up stairs into the world, for I was born in a cellar.
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Hannibal was a very pretty fellow in those days.
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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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Blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds, and though a late, a sure reward succeeds.
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Nothing but you can lay hold of my mind, and that can lay hold of nothing but you.
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There are times when sense may be unseasonable, as well as truth.
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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.
William Congreve
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There is in true Beauty, as in Courage, somewhat which narrow Souls cannot dare to admire.
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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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It is the business of a comic poet to paint the vices and follies of human kind.
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One minute gives invention to destroy What to rebuild, will a whole age employ.
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I find we are growing serious, and then we are in great danger of being dull.
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Every man plays the fool once in his live, but to marry is playing the fool all one's life long.
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There is nothing more unbecoming a man of quality than to laugh ... 'tis such a vulgar expression of the passion!
William Congreve
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Some by experience find those words mis-placed: At leisure married, they repent in haste.
William Congreve
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Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.
William Congreve