William Wycherley Quotes & Sayings

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

Poetry in love is no more to be avoided than jealousy. — William Wycherley

Money makes up in a measure all other wants in men. — William Wycherley

Next to the pleasure of finding a new mistress is that of being rid of an old one. — William Wycherley

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. — William Wycherley

Wine gives you liberty, love takes it away. — William Wycherley

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

Women serve but to keep a man from better company. — William Wycherley

I have heard people eat most heartily of another man's meat, that is, what they do not pay for. — William Wycherley

Women of quality are so civil, you can hardly distinguish love from good breeding. — William Wycherley

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

Necessity, mother of invention. — William Wycherley

Come, for my part I will have only those glorious, manly pleasures of being very drunk, and very slovenly. — William Wycherley

A good name is seldom got by giving it oneself. — William Wycherley

A beauty masked, like the sun in eclipse, gathers together more gazers than if it shined out. — William Wycherley

Drinking with women is as unnatural as scolding with 'em. — William Wycherley

Hunger, revenge, to sleep are petty foes, But only death the jealous eyes can close. — William Wycherley

Thy books should, like thy friends, not many be, yet such wherein men may thy judgment see. — William Wycherley

Poets, like whores, are only hated by each other. — William Wycherley

Good fellowship and friendship are lasting, rational and manly pleasures. — William Wycherley

He's a fool that marries, but he's a greater that does not marry a fool; what is wit in a wife good for, but to make a man a cuckold? — William Wycherley

Wit has as few true judges as painting. — William Wycherley

Go to your business, pleasure, whilst I go to my pleasure, business. — William Wycherley

Grief is so far from retrieving a loss that it makes it greater; but the way to lessen it is by a comparison with others' losses. — William Wycherley

Mistresses are like books; if you pore upon them too much, they doze you and make you unfit for company; but if used discreetly, you are the fitter for conversation by em. — William Wycherley

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

With faint praises one another damn. — William Wycherley

Ceremony and great professing renders friendship as much suspect as it does religion. — William Wycherley

As wit is too hard for power in council, so power is too hard for wit in action. — William Wycherley

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

Poets, like friends to whom you are in debt, you hate. — William Wycherley

Temperance is the nurse of chastity. — William Wycherley

Wit is more necessary than beauty; and I think no young woman ugly that has it, and no handsome woman agreeable without it. — William Wycherley

Your women of honor, as you call em, are only chary of their reputations, not their persons; and 'Tis scandal that they would avoid, not men. — William Wycherley

Have as much good nature as good sense since they generally are companions. — William Wycherley

I weigh the man, not his title; 'tis not the king's stamp can make the metal better. — William Wycherley