Quotes from William Wycherley

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

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

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

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

Good fellowship and friendship are lasting, rational and manly pleasures.

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

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

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

For your own sake you should give her a new gown; for variety of dresses rouses desire, and makes an old mistress seem every day a new one.

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?

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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.

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

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

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

Wine gives you liberty, love takes it away.