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

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
Comic
Paint
Kindness
Poet
Business
Human
Follies
Humans
Folly
Kind
Vices

More quotes by William Congreve

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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.
William Congreve
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Who pleases one against his will.
William Congreve
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One minute gives invention to destroy What to rebuild, will a whole age employ.
William Congreve
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I came up stairs into the world, for I was born in a cellar.
William Congreve
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He that first cries out stop thief, is often he that has stolen the treasure.
William Congreve
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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.
William Congreve
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A hungry wolf at all the herd will run, In hopes, through many, to make sure of one.
William Congreve
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O, nothing is more alluring than a levee from a couch in some confusion.
William Congreve
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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.
William Congreve
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Love's but a frailty of the mind, When 'tis not with ambition joined.
William Congreve
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All well bred persons lie - Besides, you are a woman you must never speak what you think.
William Congreve
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Hannibal was a very pretty fellow in those days.
William Congreve
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Wit must be foiled by wit: cut a diamond with a diamond.
William Congreve
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Words are the weak support of cold indifference love has no language to be heard.
William Congreve
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Courtship is to marriage, as a very witty prologue to a very dull play.
William Congreve
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I find we are growing serious, and then we are in great danger of being dull.
William Congreve
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I hope you do not think me prone to any iteration of nuptials.
William Congreve
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Thus in this sad, but oh, too pleasing state! my soul can fix upon nothing but thee thee it contemplates, admires, adores, nay depends on, trusts on you alone.
William Congreve
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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.
William Congreve
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There are times when sense may be unseasonable, as well as truth.
William Congreve