Belinda: Ay, but you know we must return good for evil

Quote byJohn Vanbrugh · 1664–1726

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Provoked Wife, Act I, sc. i (1698).

English (original)

Belinda: Ay, but you know we must return good for evil. Lady Brute: That may be a mistake in the translation.

— John Vanbrugh

When debtors once have borrowed all we have to lend, they are very apt to grow shy of their creditors' company.

He laughs best who laughs last.

Once a woman has given you her heart you can never get rid of the rest of her.

No man worth having is true to his wife, or can be true to his wife, or ever was, or ever will be so.

Thinking is to me the greatest fatigue in the world.

The want of a thing is perplexing enough, but the possession of it is intolerable.