George Etherege Quotes

George Etherege mixes witty counsel on love, rivalry and the art of wit.

9 quotes

1. Next to the coming to a good understanding with a new mistress, I love a quarrel with an old one.

2. When love grows diseased, the best thing we can do is to put it to a violent death. I cannot endure the torture of a lingering and consumptive passion.

3. Writing, madam, is a mechanic part of wit. A gentleman should never go beyond a song or a billet.

4. I know all beyond High Park's a desert to you.

5. I must confess I am a fop in my heart; ill customs influence my very senses, and I have been so used to affectation that without the help of the air of the court what is natural cannot touch me.

6. We are not masters of our own affections; our inclinations dailyalter: now we love pleasure, and anon we shall dote on business. Human frailty will have it so, and who can help it?

7. “Were it not madness to deny To live because we're sure to die?”

8. “Nature well drawn, and wit, must now give place To gaudy nonsense and to dull grimace: Nor is it strange that you should like so much That kind of wit, for most of yours is such.”

9. “Love gilds us over and makes us show fine things to one another for a time, but soon the gold wears off, and then again the native brass appears.”