Quote#Love
Say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been…
Quote byWilliam Congreve · 1670–1729
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Way of the World (1700), Act II, scene i. Precedent for Alfred Tennyson's more famous: "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all".
English (original)
Say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved.
— William Congreve
More from William Congreve
Pious Selinda goes to Pray’rs, If I but ask the Favour; And yet the tender Fool’s in Tears, When she believes I’ll leave her.Wou’d I were free from Restraint, Or else had Hopes to win her; Wou’d she cou’d make of me a Saint,
Defer not till tomorrow to be wise, Tomorrow's sun to thee may never rise.
Invention flags, his brain goes muddy, And black despair succeeds brown study.
Ah! Whither, whither shall I fly, A poor unhappy Maid; To hopeless Love and Misery By my own Heart betray’d?
Careless she is with artful care, Affecting to seem unaffected.
In my conscience I believe the baggage loves me, for she never speaks well of me herself, nor suffers any body else to rail at me.