William Congreve Quotes (35 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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The Mourning Bride

William Congreve

William Congreve: 35 quotes 8 likes

Famous William Congreve Quotes

“Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.”

William Congreve The Mourning Bride

Act III, scene viii; often paraphrased: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". A similar line occurs in Love's Last Shift, by Colley Cibber, act iv.: "We shall find no fiend in hell can match the fury of a disappointed woman".
The Mourning Bride (1697)
Variant: Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned,
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.
Context: Vile and ingrate! too late thou shalt repent
The base Injustice thou hast done my Love:
Yes, thou shalt know, spite of thy past Distress,
And all those Ills which thou so long hast mourn'd;
Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.

“Never go to bed angry, stay up and fight.”

William Congreve

Phyllis Diller, as quoted in Getting Through to the Man You Love : The No-Nonsense, No-Nagging Guide for Women (1999) by Michele Weiner-Davis, p. 151
Misattributed

“Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.”

William Congreve The Mourning Bride

Act I, scene i; the first lines of this passage are often rendered in modern spelling as "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast", or misquoted as: "Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast".
The Mourning Bride (1697)
Context: Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
I've read, that things inanimate have mov'd,
And, as with living Souls, have been inform'd,
By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound.
What then am I? Am I more senseless grown
Than Trees, or Flint? O force of constant Woe!
'Tis not in Harmony to calm my Griefs.
Anselmo sleeps, and is at Peace; last Night
The silent Tomb receiv'd the good Old King;
He and his Sorrows now are safely lodg'd
Within its cold, but hospitable Bosom.
Why am not I at Peace?

“Women are like tricks by sleight of hand,
Which, to admire, we should not understand.”

William Congreve Love for Love

Act IV, scene iii
Love for Love (1695)

“Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure;
Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.”

William Congreve The Old Bachelor

Act V, scene viii. Compare: "Who wooed in haste, and means to wed at leisure", William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act iii, scene 2
The Old Bachelor (1693)

“Say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved.”

William Congreve The Way of the World

Act II, scene i. Precedent for Alfred Tennyson's more famous: "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all"
The Way of the World (1700)

William Congreve Quotes about love

“Love's but a frailty of the mind,
When 'tis not with ambition joined.”

William Congreve The Way of the World

Act III, scene xii
The Way of the World (1700)

“Ah! Whither, whither shall I fly,
A poor unhappy Maid;
To hopeless Love and Misery
By my own Heart betray’d?”

William Congreve

Incognita: Or, Love and Duty Reconcil'd (1692)

“If there's delight in love, 'tis when I see
That heart which others bleed for, bleed for me.”

William Congreve The Way of the World

Act III, scene xii http://books.google.com/books?id=2LQNAAAAQAAJ&q=%22If+there's+delight+in+love+tis+when+I%22+%22That+heart+which+others+bleed+for+bleed+for+me%22&pg=PA34#v=onepage
The Way of the World (1700)

“In my conscience I believe the baggage loves me, for she never speaks well of me herself, nor suffers any body else to rail at me.”

William Congreve The Old Bachelor

Act I, scene iii
The Old Bachelor (1693)

“If this be not love, it is madness, and then it is pardonable.”

William Congreve The Old Bachelor

Act IV, scene x
The Old Bachelor (1693)