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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
Kindness
Poet
Business
Human
Follies
Humans
Folly
Kind
Vices
Comic
Paint

More quotes by William Congreve

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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.
William Congreve
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You are a woman: you must never speak what you think your words must contradict your thoughts, but your actions may contradict your words.
William Congreve
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A woman only obliges a man to secrecy, that she may have the pleasure of telling herself.
William Congreve
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Women like flames have a destroying power never to be quenched till they themselves devour.
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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Invention flags, his brain goes muddy, And black despair succeeds brown study.
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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To find a young fellow that is neither a wit in his own eye, nor a fool in the eye of the world, is a very hard task.
William Congreve
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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.
William Congreve
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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.
William Congreve
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How hard a thing 'twould be to please you all.
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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O fie, miss, you must not kiss and tell.
William Congreve
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Delay not till tomorrow to be wise tomorrow's sun to thee may neve rise.
William Congreve
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There are come Critics so with Spleen diseased, They scarcely come inclining to be pleased: And sure he must have more than mortal Skill, Who please one against his Will.
William Congreve
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O, she is the antidote to desire.
William Congreve
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If there's delight in love, 'Tis when I see that heart, which others bleed for, bleed for me.
William Congreve
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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!
William Congreve
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'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