Top 98 John Gay Quotes
#1. Man may escape from rope and gun; Nay, some have outlived the doctor's pill: Who takes a woman must be undone, That basilisk is sure to kill. The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets, So he that tastes woman, woman, woman, He that tastes woman, ruin meets.
John Gay
#2. Of all the fools that pride can boast, A Coxcomb claims distinction most.
John Gay
#3. Those who in quarrels interpose, must often wipe a bloody nose.
John Gay
#4. The careful insect 'midst his works I view,
Now from the flowers exhaust the fragrant dew,
With golden treasures load his little thighs,
And steer his distant journey through the skies.
John Gay
#5. Fair is the kingcup that in meadow blows, Fair is the daisy that beside her grows.
John Gay
#6. Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil O'er books consumed the midnight oil?
John Gay
#7. Whoever heard a man of fortune in England talk of the necessaries of life? ... Whether we can afford it or no, we must have superfluities.
John Gay
#8. And when a lady's in the case, You know, all other things give place.
John Gay
#9. Look round, the wrecks of play behold; Estates dismember'd, mortgaged, sold! Their owners now to jails confin'd, Show equal poverty of mind.
John Gay
#10. To friendship every burden's light.
John Gay
#11. My lodging is on the cold ground, And hard, very hard, is my fare, But that which grieves me more Is the coldness of my dear.
John Gay
#12. A rich rogue nowadays is fit company for any gentleman; and the world, my dear, hath not such a contempt for roguery as you imagine.
John Gay
#13. Cowards are cruel, but the brave love mercy and delight to save.
John Gay
#14. How, like a moth, the simple maid Still plays around the flame!
John Gay
#15. The luxury of doing good surpasses every other personal enjoyment.
John Gay
#16. In beauty faults conspicuous grow; The smallest speck is seen on snow.
John Gay
#17. Do you think your mother and I should have lived comfortably so long together, if ever we had been married? Baggage!
John Gay
#18. Youth's the season made for joys, Love is then our duty.
John Gay
#19. If the heart of a man is depressed with cares, The mist is dispell'd when a woman appears; Like the notes of a fiddle, she sweetly, sweetly Raises the spirits, and charms our ears.
John Gay
#20. Envy's a sharper spur than pay: No author ever spar'd a brother; Wits are gamecocks to one another.
John Gay
#21. To cheat a man isnothing; but the womanmust have fine parts indeed who cheats a woman!
John Gay
#22. Shall ignorance of good and ill Dare to direct the eternal will? Seek virtue, and of that possest, To Providence resign the rest.
John Gay
#23. Can you support the expense of a husband, hussy, in gaming, drinking and whoring? Have you money enough to carry on the daily quarrels of man and wife about who shall squander most?
John Gay
#24. Fill ev'ry glass, for wine inspires us,
And fires us
With courage, love and joy.
Women and wine should life employ.
Is there ought else on earth desirous?
John Gay
#25. In love we are all fools alike.
John Gay
#26. Why is the hearse with scutcheons blazon'd round, And with the nodding plume of ostrich crown'd? No; the dead know it not, nor profit gain; It only serves to prove the living vain.
John Gay
#27. I cannot raise my worth too high; Of what vast consequence am I! "Not of the importance you suppose," Replies a Flea upon his nose; "Be humble, learn thyself to scan; Know, pride was never made for man.
John Gay
#28. One common fate we both must prove; You die with envy, I with love.
John Gay
#29. The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets.
John Gay
#30. I know you lawyers can with ease, Twist words and meanings as you please; That language, by your skill made pliant, Will bend to favour every client; That 'tis the fee directs the sense, To make out either side's pretense.
John Gay
#31. Fair is the marigold, for pottage meet.
John Gay
#32. From kings to cobblers 'tis the same; Bad servants wound their masters' fame.
John Gay
#33. When if or chance or hunger's powerful sway Directs the roving trout this fatal way, He greedily sucks in the twining bait, And tugs and nibbles the fallacious meat. Now, happy fisherman; now twitch the line! How thy rod bends! behold, the prize is thine!
John Gay
#34. By outward show let's not be cheated; An ass should like an ass be treated.
John Gay
#35. Give me, kind heaven, a private station, a mind serene for contemplation.
John Gay
#36. What then in love can woman do? If we grow fond they shun us. And when we fly them, they pursue: But leave us when they've won us.
John Gay
#37. Variety's the source of joy below, From whence still fresh-revolving pleasures flow, In books and love the mind one end pursues, And only change the expiring flames renews.
John Gay
#38. Envy's a sharper spur than pay.
John Gay
#39. When we risk no contradiction, It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction.
John Gay
#40. So comes a reck'ning when the banquet's o'er, The dreadful reckn'ning, and men smile no more.
John Gay
#41. Is there no hope? the sick man said, The silent doctor shook his head, And took his leave with signs of sorrow, Despairing of his fee to-morrow.
John Gay
#42. What frenzy dictates, jealousy believes
John Gay
#43. Thus shadow owes its birth to light.
John Gay
#44. The sun was set; the night came on apace, And falling dews bewet around the place; The bat takes airy rounds on leathern wings, And the hoarse owl his woeful dirges sings.
John Gay
#45. Some folks of cider make a rout
And cider's well enough no doubt
When better liquors fail;
But wine, that's richer, better still,
Ev'n wine itself (deny't who will)
Must yield to nappy ale
John Gay
#46. Lions, wolves, and vultures don't live together in herds, droves or flocks. Of all animals of prey, man is the only sociable one. Every one of us preys upon his neighbor, and yet we herd together.
John Gay
#47. Were I laid on Greenland's Coast, And in my Arms embrac'd my Lass; Warm amidst eternal Frost, Too soon the Half Year's Night would pass.
John Gay
#48. No retreat. No retreat. They must conquer or die who've no retreat.
John Gay
#49. 'T is woman that seduces all mankind; By her we first were taught the wheedling arts.
John Gay
#50. Love is so whimsical in both sexes that it is impossible to be lasting. But my heart is particular and contradicts my own observation.
John Gay
#51. You can only be called a hypocrite if you judge others first.
John Gay
#52. No author ever spar'd a brother.
John Gay
#53. Can love be controll'd by advice?
John Gay
#54. Gulliver was soon being read "from the cabinet council to the nursery".
John Gay
#55. Woman's mind Oft' shifts her passions, like th'inconstant wind; Sudden she rages, like the troubled main, Now sinks the storm, and all is calm again.
John Gay
#56. But his kiss was so sweet, and so closely he pressed, that I languished and pined till I granted the rest.
John Gay
#57. Who talks much, must talk in vain.
John Gay
#58. Around the steel no tortur'd worm shall twine, No blood of living insect stain my line; Let me, less cruel, cast the feather'd hook, With pliant rod athwart the pebbled brook, Silent along the mazy margin stray, And with the fur-wrought fly delude the prey.
John Gay
#59. One wife is too much for most husbands to bear, But two at a time there's no mortal can bear.
John Gay
#60. I never, with important air, In conversation overbear ... My tongue within my lips I rein; For who talks much must talk in vain.
John Gay
#61. Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.
John Gay
#62. My Own Epitaph
Life's a jest, and all things show it.
I thought so once, and now I know it.
John Gay
#63. What will not luxury taste? Earth, sea, and air, Are daily ransack'd for the bill of fare. Blood stuffed in skins is British Christians' food, And France robs marshes of the croaking brood.
John Gay
#64. A woman's friendship ever ends in love.
John Gay
#65. The charge is prepared; the lawyers are met; The judges all ranged (a terrible show!) I go, undismay'd. For death is a debt, A debt on demand. So take what I owe.
John Gay
#66. Beasts kill for hunger, men for pay.
John Gay
#67. Twas when the seas were roaring With hollow blasts of wind, A damsel lay deploring, All on a rock reclined.
John Gay
#68. Who friendship with a knave hath made, Is judged a partner in the trade.
John Gay
#69. To frame the little animal, provide All the gay hues that wait on female pride: Let Nature guide thee; sometimes golden wire The shining bellies of the fly require; The peacock's plumes thy tackle must not fail, Nor the dear purchase of the sable's tail.
John Gay
#71. She who has never lov'd, has never liv'd.
John Gay
#72. Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them!
John Gay
#73. I hate the man who builds his name On ruins of another's fame. Thus prudes, by characters o'erthrown, Imagine that they raise their own. Thus Scribblers, covetous of praise, Think slander can transplant the bays.
John Gay
#74. Praising all alike, is praising none.
John Gay
#75. How happy could I be with either, Were t'other dear charmer away!
John Gay
#76. A man is always afraid of a woman that loves him too much
John Gay
#77. In every age and clime we see Two of a trade can never agree.
John Gay
#78. On the choice of friends, Our good or evil name depends.
John Gay
#79. Of all mechanics, of all servile handycrafts-men, a gamester is the vilest. But yet, as many of the quality are of the profession, he is admitted amongst the politest company.
John Gay
#80. Who hath not heard the rich complain Of surfeits, and corporeal pain? He barr'd from every use of wealth, Envies the ploughman's strength and health.
John Gay
#81. O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed, by keeping men off, you keep them on.
John Gay
#82. Shadow owes its birth to light.
John Gay
#83. An open foe may prove a curse, but a pretended friend is worse.
John Gay
#84. She who has never loved has never lived.
John Gay
#85. There is no dependence that can be sure but a dependence upon one's self.
John Gay
#86. Lest men suspect your tale untrue, Keep probability in view.
John Gay
#87. Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise. For envy is a kind of praise.
John Gay
#88. To shoot at crows is powder flung away.
John Gay
#89. Fill it up. I take as large draughts of liquor as I did of love. I hate a flincher in either.
John Gay
#90. Gamesters and highwaymen are generally very good to their whores, but they are very devils to their wives.
John Gay
#91. The comfortable estate of widowhood is the only hope that keeps up a wife's spirits.
John Gay
#92. Learning by study must be won; 'Twas ne'er entail'd from son to son.
John Gay
#93. Nor love, not honor, wealth nor power, can give the heart a cheerful hour when health is lost. Be timely wise; With health all taste of pleasure flies.
John Gay
#94. I must have women - there is nothing unbends the mind like them.
John Gay
#95. Music might tame and civilize wild beasts, but 'tis evident it never yet could tame and civilize musicians.
John Gay
#96. Here Shock, the pride of all his kind, is laid, Who fawned like man, but ne'er like man betrayed.
John Gay
#97. What happiness the rural maid attends, In cheerful labour while each day she spends! She gratefully receives what Heav'n has sent, And, rich in poverty, enjoys content.
John Gay
#98. But money, wife, is the true Fuller's Earth for reputations, there is not a spot or a stain but what it can take out.
John Gay
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