William Congreve
William Congreve
William Congrevewas an English playwright and poet...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth24 January 1670
expectations joy wish
Would any thing but a madman complain of uncertainty? Uncertainty and expectation are joys of life; security is an insipid thing; and the overtaking and possessing of a wish discovers the folly of the chase.
roots adultery should
Marriage is honourable, as you say; and if so, wherefore should Cuckoldom be a Discredit, being deriv'd from so honourable a Root?
strange married wells
Let us be very strange and well-bred:Let us be as strange as if we had been married a great while;And as well-bred as if we were not married at all.
heaven fool helping
I am a fool, I know it; and yet, Heaven help me, I'm poor enough to be a wit.
wife littles degrees
These articles subscribed, if I continue to endure you a little longer, I may by degrees dwindle into wife.
marriage witty play
Courtship is to marriage, as a very witty prologue to a very dull play.
father glasses idlers
Come, come, leave business to idlers, and wisdom to fools: they have need of 'em: wit be my faculty, and pleasure my occupation, and let father Time shake his glass.
brain black despair
Invention flags, his brain goes muddy, and black despair succeeds brown study.
marriage grief high-heels
Grief walks upon the heels of pleasure; married in haste, we repent at leisure.
secret knows
I know that’s a secret, for it’s whispered everywhere.
funny men play
Every man plays the fool once in his live, but to marry is playing the fool all one's life long.
guilt breeding blushing
I always take blushing either for a sign of guilt, or of ill breeding.
ill impudence malice manners pass
Where modesty's ill manners, 'tis but fitThat impudence and malice pass for wit.
Would she could make of me a saint,Or I of her a sinner.