William Wycherley Quotes

William Wycherley offers blunt, plain-spoken critique of status and value.

14 quotes

1. And with faint praises one another damn.

2. I weigh the man, not his title; 't is not the king's stamp can make the metal better.

3. Poetry in love is no more to be avoided than jealousy.

4. Marrying to increase love is like gaming to become rich; alas, you only lose what little stock you had before.

5. Thy books should, like thy friends, not many be/Yet such wherein men may thy judgment see.

6. Conversation augments pleasure and diminishes pain by our having shares in either; for silent woes are greatest, as silent satisfaction leas; since sometimes our pleasure would be none but for telling of it, and our grief insupportable but for participation.

7. As wit is too hard for power in council, so power is too hard for wit in action.

8. A mistress should be like a little country retreat near the town, not to dwell in constantly, but only for a night and away.

9. Go to your business, pleasure, whilst I go to my pleasure, business.

10. Poets, like friends to whom you are in debt, you hate.

11. I love to be envied, and would not marry a wife that I alone could love; loving alone is as dull as eating alone.

12. Bluster, sputter, question, cavil; but be sure your argument be intricate enough to confound the court.

13. A good name is seldom got by giving it oneself.

14. Charity and good-nature give a sanction to the most common actions; and pride and ill-nature make our best virtues despicable.