Thomas Otway Quotes

#1. Honesty was a cheat invented first To bind the hands of bold deserving rogues, That fools and cowards might sit safe in power, And lord it uncontroll'd above their betters.

Thomas Otway

#2. O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee
To temper man: we had been brutes without you.

Thomas Otway

#3. Honesty needs no disguise nor ornament; be plain.

Thomas Otway

#4. False as the adulterate promises of favorites in power when poor men court them.

Thomas Otway

#5. Love reigns a very tyrant in my heart.

Thomas Otway

#6. What mighty ills have not been done by woman!
Who was't betray'd the Capitol? A woman;
Who lost Mark Antony the world? A woman;
Who was the cause of a long ten years' war,
And laid at last old Troy is ashes? Woman;
Destructive, damnable, deceitful woman!

Thomas Otway

#7. If we must part forever,
Give me but one kind word to think upon
and please myself with, while my heart's breaking.

Thomas Otway

#8. Avoid the politic, the factious fool,
The busy, buzzing, talking harden'd knave;
The quaint smooth rogue that sins against his reason,
Calls saucy loud sedition public zeal,
And mutiny the dictates of his spirit.

Thomas Otway

#9. Ere man's corruptions made him wretched, he Was born most noble that was born most free; Each of himself was lord; and unconfin'd Obey'd the dictates of his godlike mind.

Thomas Otway

#10. You wags that judge by rote, and damn by rule.

Thomas Otway

#11. Oh woman! lovely woman! nature made thee To temper man; we had been brutes without you; Angels are painted fair to look like you; There's in you all that we believe of heaven, Amazing brightness, purity, and truth, Eternal joy, and everlasting love.

Thomas Otway

#12. Home I would go But that my doors are hateful to my eyes, Fill'd and damm'd up with gaping creditors, Watchful as fowlers when their game will spring.

Thomas Otway

#13. Justice is lame as well as blind, amongst us.

Thomas Otway

#14. If love be treasure, we'll be wondrous rich.

Thomas Otway

#15. Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment.

Thomas Otway

#16. Children blessings seem, but torments are.

Thomas Otway

#17. Who can describe
Women's hypocrisies! their subtle wiles,
Betraying smiles, feign'd tears, inconstancies!
Their painted outsides, and corrupted minds,
The sum of all their follies, and their falsehoods.

Thomas Otway

#18. Who's a prince or beggar in the grave?

Thomas Otway

#19. Base natures ever judge a thing above them, and hate a power they are too much obliged to.

Thomas Otway

#20. Let us embrace, and from this very moment vow an eternal misery together.

Thomas Otway

#21. How many men
Have spent their blood in their dear country's service,
Yet now pine under want; while selfish slaves,
That even would cut their throats whom now they fawn on,
Like deadly locusts, eat the honey up,
Which those industrious bees so hardly toil'd for.

Thomas Otway

#22. Could my griefs speak, the tale would have no end.

Thomas Otway

#23. And die with decency.

Thomas Otway

#24. Clocks will go as they are set, but man, irregular man, is never constant, never certain.

Thomas Otway

#25. Cowards are scared with threatenings; boys are whipped into confession; but a steady mind acts of itself, ne'er asks the body counsel.

Thomas Otway

#26. Revenge, the attribute of gods! They stamped it with their great image on our natures.

Thomas Otway

#27. Dame Fortune, like most others of the female sex, is generally most indulgent to the nimble-mettled blockheads.

Thomas Otway

#28. The worst thing an old man can be is a lover.

Thomas Otway

#29. Shining through tears, like April suns in showers, that labour to overcome the cloud that loads 'em.

Thomas Otway

#30. The poor sleep little.

Thomas Otway

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

Thomas Otway

#32. And for an apple damn'd mankind.

Thomas Otway

#33. No flattery, boy! an honest man cannot live by it; it is a little, sneaking art, which knaves use to cajole and soften fools withal.

Thomas Otway

#34. There is such sweet pain in parting that I could hang forever on thine arms, and look away my life into thine eyes.

Thomas Otway

#35. Honest men are the soft easy cushions on which knaves repose and fatten.

Thomas Otway

#36. Greatness, thou gaudy torment of out souls,
The wise man's fetter, and the rage of fools.

Thomas Otway