Behn Quotes & Sayings

That perfect tranquility of life, which is nowhere to be found but in retreat, a faithful friend and a good library. — Aphra Behn

Kings that made laws, first broke 'em ... — Aphra Behn

No friend to Love like a long voyage at sea. — Aphra Behn

. . . the mind always has logic; it might not be obvious logic, but the mind has its reasons for connecting two seemingly unlike notions. -Carol Muske, Translations: Idea to Image — Robin Behn

I value fame as much as if I had been born a Hero. — Aphra Behn

For thou hast made a very fiend of me, and I have hell within. — Aphra Behn

All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds. — Virginia Woolf

He that will live in this World, must be endu'd with the three rare Qualities of Dissimulation, Equivocation, and mental Reservation. — Aphra Behn

'Twas but a dream, yet by my heart I knew, Which still was panting, part of it was true: Oh how I strove the rest to have believed; Ashamed and angry to be undeceived! — Aphra Behn

All I ask, is the privilege for my masculine part the poet in me ... If I must not, because of my sex, have this freedom ... I lay down my quill and you shall hear no more of me. — Aphra Behn

Faith, sir, we are here today, and gone tomorrow. — Aphra Behn

But time lessens all extremes, & reduces them to mediums & unconcern. — Aphra Behn

Excuse me while I slip into something more comfortable. — Harry Behn

Time lessens all extremes and reduces 'em to mediums and unconcern ... — Aphra Behn

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

Love's a thin Diet, nor will keep out Cold. — Aphra Behn

Who is't that to woman's beauty would submit,
And yet refuse the fetters of their wit? — Aphra Behn

Jealousy, the old worm that bites. — Aphra Behn

Where there is no novelty, there can be no curiosity. — Aphra Behn

Fantastic fortune thou deceitful light,
That cheats the weary traveler by night,
Though on a precipice each step you tread,
I am resolved to follow where you lead. — Aphra Behn

Women in London are like the rich silks; they are out of fashion a great while before they wear out. — Aphra Behn

He made her vows she should be the only woman he would possess while he lived; that no age or wrinkles should incline him to change; for her soul would be always fine, and always young; and he should have an eternal idea in his mind of the charms she now bore; and should look into his heart for that idea, when he could find it no longer in her face. — Aphra Behn

I think a Play the best divertisement that wise men have: but I do also think them nothing so who do discourse so formallie about the rules of it, as if 'twere the grand affair of humane life. — Aphra Behn

And did with sighs their fate deplore,
Since I must shelter them no more;
And if before my joys were such,
In having heard, and seen too much,
My grief must be as great and high,
When all abandoned I shall be,
Doomed to a silent destiny. — Aphra Behn

As love is the most noble and divine passion of the soul, so is it that to which we may justly attribute all the real satisfactions of life, and without it, man is unfinished, and unhappy. — Aphra Behn

There is no sinner like a young saint. — Aphra Behn

But time lessens all extremes, & reduces them to mediums & unconcern. — Aphra Behn

WILLMORE: Nay, if we part so, let me die like a Bird upon a Bough, at the Sheriff's Charge. By Heaven, both the Indies shall not buy thee from me. I adore thy Humour and will marry thee, and we are so of one Humour, it must be a Bargain - give me thy Hand - [Kisses her hand.] And now let the blind ones (Love and Fortune) do their worst. — Aphra Behn

Nothing is more capable of troubling our reason, and consuming our health, than secret notions of jealousy in solitude. — Aphra Behn

Come away; poverty's catching. — Aphra Behn

Affectation hath always had a greater share both in the action and discourse of men than truth and judgment have ... — Aphra Behn

One hour of right-down love is worth an age of dully living on. — Aphra Behn

Tis Love alone can make our fetters please. — Aphra Behn

Possessed with a thousand thoughts of past joys — Aphra Behn

Patience is a flatterer, sir, and an ass, sir. — Aphra Behn

A brave world, sir, full of religion, knavery, and change: we shall shortly see better days. — Aphra Behn

Love, like reputation, once fled, never returns more. — Aphra Behn

Oh, what a dear ravishing thing is the beginning of an Amour! — Aphra Behn

For the first time, Smollett adopted a device that Barbara Foley calls "pseudofactual imposture," a strategy of presentation that we associate with the fictions of Behn, Defoe, and Richardson. — Tobias Smollett

Love ceases to be a pleasure when it ceases to be a secret. — Aphra Behn

Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be
Defence enough against Mortality — Aphra Behn

A man of wit could not be a knave or villain. — Aphra Behn

Dear me no Dears, Sir ... — Aphra Behn

Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand. — Aphra Behn

You may make love in dancing as well as sitting. — Aphra Behn

For now that Aphra Behn had done it, girls could go to their parents and say, You need not give me an allowance; I can make money by my pen. — Virginia Woolf

This old dead hero had one only daughter left of his race; a beauty that, to describe her truly, one need say only, she was female to the noble male; the beautiful black Venus to our young Mars; as charming in her person as he, and of delicate virtues. I have seen an hundred white men sighing after her, and making a thousand vows at her feet, all vain, and unsuccessful; and she was, indeed, too great for any, but a prince of her own nation to adore. — Aphra Behn

As we were coming up again, we met with some Indians of strange aspects, that is, of a larger size, and other sort of features, than those of our country. Our Indian slaves, that rowed us, asked them some questions, but they could not understand us, but showed us a long cotton string, with several knots on it, and told us, they had been coming from the mountains so many moons as there were knots. — Aphra Behn

When he came, attended by all the young soldiers of any merit, he was infinitely surprised at the beauty of this fair Queen of Night, whose face and person was so exceeding all he had ever beheld; that lovely modesty with which she received him, that softness in her look, and sighs, upon the melancholy occasion of this honour that was done by so great a man as Oroonoko, and a prince of whom she had heard such admirable things; the awfulness wherewith she received him, and the sweetness of her words and behavior while he stayed, gained a perfect conquest over his fierce heart, and made him feel the victor could be subdued. — Aphra Behn

He that knew all that learning ever writ, Knew only this - that he knew nothing yet. — Aphra Behn

Variety is the soul of pleasure. — Aphra Behn

Sure, I rose the wrong way today, I have had such damn'd ill luck every way. — Aphra Behn

Each moment of a happy love's hour is worth an age of dull and common life. — Aphra Behn

A spark in the sun, this tiny flower has roots deep in the cool earth. — Harry Behn

He knew almost as much as if he had read much. — Aphra Behn