17th-century Playwright Quotes

Molière

Jean Racine

Pierre Corneille

John Dryden

John Gay

William Congreve

William Davenant

Wood to La. Vaine. "Tis true, Madame, Sir Positive and Poet Ninny are excellent men, and brave Bully-Rocks; but they must grant, that neither of e'm understand Mathematics but myself.

Thomas Shadwell

Art is something which lies in the slender margin between the real and the unreal.

Chikamatsu Monzaemon

This I did to prevent expences, for … a penny sav'd, is a penny got.

Edward Ravenscroft

The reconciling grave swallows distinction first, that made us foes; there all lie down in peace together.

Thomas Southerne

Still-born Silence! thou that art
Floodgate of the deeper heart.

Richard Flecknoe

A man who could make so vile a pun would not scruple to pick a pocket.

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?

George Etherege

It is better to wear rags in honesty than brocade in dishonor.

Whoever has but a moment to live has nothing more to hide.

Philippe Quinault

Hark, how chimes the passing bell! There's no music to a knell; All the other sounds we hear, Flatter, and but cheat our ear. This doth put us still in mind That our flesh must be resigned, And, a general silence made, The world be muffled in a shade.

Immense as Whales, the motion of whose vast bodies can in a peaceful calm trouble the Ocean till it boyl...

William Davenant

Malicious tongues spread their poison abroad and nothing here below is proof against them.

To thee, and gentle Rigdom Funnidos,
Our gratulations flow in streams unbounded.

A quack is as fit for a pimp as a midwife for a bawd: they are still but in their way, both helpers of nature.

William Wycherley

The stars, heav'n sentry, wink and seem to die.

I may boldly speak In right, though proud oppression will not hear me!

A wit should no more be sincere, than a woman constant; one argues a decay of parts, as to other of beauty.

William Congreve

It is no longer a passion hidden in my heart:
It is Venus herself fastened to her prey.

An impulsive action has never been classed as a crime.

In French: Un premier mouvement ne fut jamais un crime

Pierre Corneille

Tis a question whether adversity or prosperity makes the most poets.

George Farquhar

Shakespeare was the Homer, or father of our dramatic poets;Jonson was theVirgil, the pattern of elaborate writing; I admire him, but I love Shakespeare.

Fair is the kingcup that in meadow blows, Fair is the daisy that beside her grows.