The World
"'For a passionate lover methinks you are a man somewhat too discerning in the failures of your mistress.'
'And for a discerning man, somewhat too passionate a lover; for I like her with all her faults, nay, like her for her faults. her follies are so natural, or so artful, that they become her; and those affectations which in another woman would be odious, serve but to make her more agreeable. I'll tell thee Fainall, she once used me with that insolence, that in revenge i took her to pieces, sifted her, and separated her failings; I studied 'em, and got 'em by rote. The catelogue was so large, that I was not without hopes, one day or other to hate her heartily; to which end I so used myself to think of em, that at length, contrary to my design and expectation, they gave me every hour less and less disturbance, till in a few days it became habitual to me to remember 'em without being displeased. They are now grown as familiar to me as my own frailties; and in all probability in a little time longer I shall like 'em as well."
-William Congreve, "The Way of the World"
'And for a discerning man, somewhat too passionate a lover; for I like her with all her faults, nay, like her for her faults. her follies are so natural, or so artful, that they become her; and those affectations which in another woman would be odious, serve but to make her more agreeable. I'll tell thee Fainall, she once used me with that insolence, that in revenge i took her to pieces, sifted her, and separated her failings; I studied 'em, and got 'em by rote. The catelogue was so large, that I was not without hopes, one day or other to hate her heartily; to which end I so used myself to think of em, that at length, contrary to my design and expectation, they gave me every hour less and less disturbance, till in a few days it became habitual to me to remember 'em without being displeased. They are now grown as familiar to me as my own frailties; and in all probability in a little time longer I shall like 'em as well."
-William Congreve, "The Way of the World"