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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Women serve but to keep a man from better company.
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