John Gay Quotes

Follow love and it will flee, flee love and it will follow thee.

Fair is the marigold, for pottage meet.

Thus shadow owes its birth to light.

Cowards are cruel, but the brave love mercy and delight to save.

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.

Envy is a kind of praise.

You can only be called a hypocrite if you judge others first.

And when a lady's in the case, You know, all other things give place.

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.

From kings to cobblers 'tis the same; Bad servants wound their masters' fame.

Youth's the season made for joys, Love is then our duty.

One common fate we both must prove; You die with envy, I with love.

Fair words cost nothing.

A Wolf eats sheep but now and then; Ten thousands are devour'd by men. An open foe may prove a curse, but a pretend friend is worse.

A woman's friendship ever ends in love.

In love we are all fools alike.

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.

Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise. For envy is a kind of praise.

A man is always afraid of a woman that loves him too much

How, like a moth, the simple maid Still plays around the flame!

Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them!

If the heart of a man is depressed with cares, The mist is dispelled when a woman appears.

But his kiss was so sweet, and so closely he pressed, that I languished and pined till I granted the rest.

Can love be controll'd by advice?

Who talks much, must talk in vain.

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

Lest men suspect your tale untrue, Keep probability in view.

Of all the fools that pride can boast, A Coxcomb claims distinction most.

Exercise thy lasting youth defends.

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.

Praising all alike, is praising none.

How happy could I be with either, Were t'other dear charmer away!

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?

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.

The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets.

'T is woman that seduces all mankind; By her we first were taught the wheedling arts.

O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed, by keeping men off, you keep them on.

What frenzy dictates, jealousy believes

Music might tame and civilize wild beasts, but 'tis evident it never yet could tame and civilize musicians.

Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil O'er books consumed the midnight oil?

Give me, kind heaven, a private station, a mind serene for contemplation.

Envy's a sharper spur than pay: No author ever spar'd a brother; Wits are gamecocks to one another.

I never, with important air, In conversation overbear. . . . . My tongue within my lips I rein; For who talks much must talk in vain.

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.

I must have women - there is nothing unbends the mind like them.

Envy's a sharper spur than pay.

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.

Beasts kill for hunger, men for pay.

There is no dependence that can be sure but a dependence upon one's self.

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.