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Aphra Behn Quotes

Aphra Behn was an English playwright, poet, translator and fiction writer from the Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing, she broke cultural barriers and served as a literary role model for later generations of women authors. Rising from obscurity, she came to the notice of Charles II, who employed her as a spy in Antwerp. Upon her return to London and a probable brief stay in debtors' prison, she began writing for the stage. She belonged to a coterie of poets and famous libertines such as John Wilmot, Lord Rochester. She wrote under the pastoral pseudonym Astrea. During the turbulent political times of the Exclusion Crisis, she wrote an epilogue and prologue that brought her into legal trouble; she thereafter devoted most of her writing to prose genres and translations. A staunch supporter of the Stuart line, she declined an invitation from Bishop Burnet to write a welcoming poem to the new king William III. She died shortly after.She is remembered in Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own: "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn which is, most scandalously but rather appropriately, in Westminster Abbey, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds." Her grave is not included in the Poets' Corner but lies in the East Cloister near the steps to the church. Wikipedia  

✵ 10. July 1640 – 16. April 1689
Aphra Behn photo

Works

The Rover
Aphra Behn
Oroonoko
Aphra Behn
The Rover
Aphra Behn
Oroonoko
Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn: 15 quotes2 likes

Famous Aphra Behn Quotes

“There's no sinner like a young saint.”

Aphra Behn The Rover

The Rover, Part I, Act I, sc. ii.

“He that knew all that ever Learning writ,
Knew only this - that he knew nothing yet.”

Aphra Behn

The Emperor of the Moon, Act III, sc. iii.

“Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand.”

Aphra Behn The Rover

The Rover, Part II, Act III, sc. i.

“A poet is a painter in his way, he draws to the life, but in another kind; we draw the nobler part, the soul and the mind; the pictures of the pen shall outlast those of the pencil, and even worlds themselves.”

Aphra Behn book Oroonoko

Source: Oroonoko

“…that perfect Tranquillity of Life, which is no where to be found, but in retreat, a faithful Friend and a good Library…”

Aphra Behn

The Lucky Mistake (1689).
Source: The Lucky Chance, Or, the Alderman's Bargain

“Variety is the soul of pleasure.”

Aphra Behn The Rover

The Rover, Part II, Act I (1681).

Aphra Behn Quotes about love

“Love ceases to be a pleasure when it ceases to be a secret.”

Aphra Behn

The Lover's Watch, "Four o'Clock General Conversation" (1686).

“No friend to Love like a long voyage at sea.”

Aphra Behn The Rover

The Rover, Part I, Act I, sc. ii (1677).

“One hour of right-down love is worth an age of dully living on.”

Aphra Behn The Rover

The Rover, Part II, Act V.

Aphra Behn Quotes

“Come away; poverty's catching.”

Aphra Behn The Rover

The Rover, Part II, Act I.

“Nothing is more capable of troubling our reason, and consuming our health, than secret notions of jealousy in solitude.”

Aphra Behn

The History of Agnes de Castro, or the Force of Generous Love (1688).

“Each moment of the happy lover's hour is worth an age of dull and common life.”

Aphra Behn

The Younger Brother, Act III, sc. ii (published posthumously 1696).

“Faith, sir, we are here today, and gone tomorrow.”

Aphra Behn

The Lucky Chance, Act IV (1686).

“Oh what a dear ravishing thing is the beginning of an Amour!”

Aphra Behn

The Emperor of the Moon, Act I, sc. i (1687).

“A brave world, sir, full of religion, knavery, and change: we shall shortly see better days.”

Aphra Behn

The Roundheads (1682).

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