William Congreve
William Congreve
William Congrevewas an English playwright and poet...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth24 January 1670
light tricks women
Women are like tricks by light of hand, Which, to admire, we should not understand.
boxes cheering ears fill happier hearts lives love sealed speak tenderness thrilled until words
Do not keep the alabaster boxes of your love and tenderness sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness, speak cheering words while their ears can hear, and while their hearts can be thrilled and made happier by them.
Would she could make of me a saint,Or I of her a sinner.
free hopes sinner win
Wou'd I were free from this restraint, Or else had hopes to win her; Wou'd she cou'd make me a saint, Or I of her a sinner
against critics mortal please scarcely sure
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.
ill impudence malice manners pass
Where modesty's ill manners, 'tis but fitThat impudence and malice pass for wit.
becomes best picture sort tenderness
Yes, but tenderness becomes me best - a sort of dyingness - you see that picture has a sort of a - ha, Foible? A swimmingness in the eyes.
sir winning
Well, Sir Joseph, you have such a winning way with you.
english-poet
A little disdain is not amiss; a little scorn is alluring.
anger fury heaven hell love nor rage woman
Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.
admire beauty cannot true vulgar
There is in true beauty something which vulgar cannot admire
A wit should be no more sincere than a woman constant.
bred education pedantic servant tis
Tis well enough for a servant to be bred at an university: but the education is a little too pedantic for a gentleman.
branch fellows flood wash
A branch of one of your antediluvian families, fellows that the flood could not wash away.