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.

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.

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

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.

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 is the kingcup that in meadow blows, Fair is the daisy that beside her grows.

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.

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.

In love we are all fools alike.

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

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

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

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

Good housewives all the winter's rage despise, Defended by the riding-hood's disguise; Or, underneath the umbrella's oily shade, Safe through the wet on clinking pattens tread, Let Persian dames the unbrella's ribs display, To guard their beauties from the sunny ray; Or sweating slaves support the shady load, When eastern monarchs show their state abroad; Britain in winter only knows its aid, To guard from chilling showers the walking maid.

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

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

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.

Gamesters and highwaymen are generally very good to their whores, but they are very devils to their wives.

Can love be controll'd by advice?

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

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.

Exercise thy lasting youth defends.

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

Praising all alike, is praising none.

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

Who talks much, must talk in vain.

The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets.

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.

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

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?

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

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

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

What frenzy dictates, jealousy believes

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

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

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

When we risk no contradiction, It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction.

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.