William Congreve Quotes

A wit should be no more sincere than a woman constant.

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

Really I don't like human nature unless all candied over with art.

Experience teaches you that the man who looks you straight in the eye, particularly if he adds a firm handshake, is hiding something.

I'm the worst liar in the world.

A lot of broadcasting, I think, is doing a tremendous amount of preparation and trying to act like, 'Oh, this thought is just occurring to me right now' - and speaking sincerely.

I hate clever-cleverness, but I love good honest cleverness.

The truth just happens - lies take time to make.

You cannot play naive if you're not.

Laughter is the mind's intonation. There are ways of laughing which have the sound of counterfeit coins.

Anybody who says they are a good liar obviously is not, because any legitimately savvy liar would always insist they're honest about everything.

A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power.

I can be glib and truthful all at once.

The faking of feelings is a sin against the imagination.

From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.

Truth-tellers who expect others to believe them tend to speak naturally and un-self-consciously. But if they don't expect to be believed, they may try too hard to seem honest. Unfortunately, the result makes them sound less believable. Obviously, then, not every oddly phrased statement is a lie.

I'm the worst liar alive.

Oh, this your wife, huh? A lovely lady. Hey baby, you must've been something before electricity.

Culture is a sham if it is only a sort of Gothic front put on an iron building -- like Tower Bridge -- or a classical front put on a steel frame -- like the Daily Telegraph building in Fleet Street. Culture, if it is to be a real thing and a holy thing, must be the product of what we actually do for a living -- not something added, like sugar on a pill.

Sometimes I pose, but sometimes I pose as posing.

The character of false wit is that of appearing to depend only upon reason.

Whenever I find myself arguing for something with great passion, I can be certain I'm not convinced.

You're arguing that the fragile, rare thing is beautiful simply because it is fragile and rare. But that's a lie, and you know it.

So much perfection argues rottenness somewhere.

If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't I'll just respond cleverly.