Colley Cibber

Colley Cibber was an English actor, playwright, Poet Laureate, first British actor-manager, and head Dunce of Alexander Pope's Dunciad.

Sourced

• As good be out of the world as out of the fashion.
  • Love's Last Shift, Act II (1696)

• Prithee don’t screw your wit beyond the compass of good manners.
  • Love's Last Shift, Act II, sc. i (1696)

• We shall find no fiend in hell can match the fury of a disappointed woman,—scorned, slighted, dismissed without a parting pang.
  • Love's Last Shift, Act IV (1696). Compare: "Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd,
    Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd", William Congreve, The Mourning Bride (1697), Act III, scene viii (often paraphrased: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned").

• Possession is eleven points in the law.
  • Woman's Wit, Act I (1697)

• Words are but empty thanks.
  • Woman's Wit, Act V (1697)

• Our hours in love have wings; in absence, crutches.
  • Xerxes, Act IV, sc. iii (1699)

• The aspiring youth that fired the Ephesian dome
  Outlives in fame the pious fool that rais’d it.
  • Richard III (altered), Act III, sc. i (1700)

• Off with his head—; so much for Buckingham.
  • Richard III (altered), Act IV, sc. iii (1700)

• Perish that thought! No, never be it said
  That Fate itself could awe the soul of Richard.
  Hence, babbling dreams! you threaten here in vain!
  Conscience, avaunt! Richard ’s himself again!
  Hark! the shrill trumpet sounds to horse! away!
  My soul ’s in arms, and eager for the fray.
  • Richard III (altered), Act V, sc. iii (1700)

• This business will never hold water.
  • She Wou'd and She Wou'd Not, Act IV (1703)

• Old houses mended,
  Cost little less than new before they're ended.
  • The Double Gallant, prologue (1707)

• Oh, how many torments lie in the small circle of a wedding ring!
  • The Double Gallant, Act I, sc. ii (1707)

• Tea! Thou soft, thou sober, sage, and venerable liquid, thou innocent pretence for bringing the wicked of both sexes together in a morning; thou female tongue-running, smile-smoothing, heart- opening, wink-tipping cordial, to whose glorious insipidity I owe the happiest moment of my life, let me fall prostrate thus, and ... adore thee.
  • The Lady's Last Stake, Act I, sc. i (1707)

• Stolen sweets are best.
  • The Rival Fools, Act I (1709)

• O say what is this thing call'd Light,
  Which I must ne'er enjoy
  • The Blind Boy (l. 1-2)

• Then let not what I cannot have
  My cheer of mind destroy.
  Whilst thus I sing, I am a king,
  Although a poor blind boy!
  • The Blind Boy (l. 17-20)