Top 107 Quotes & Sayings by John Gay
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English poet John Gay.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
Cowards are cruel, but the brave love mercy and delight to save.
O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed, by keeping men off, you keep them on.
The brave love mercy, and delight to save.
On the choice of friends, Our good or evil name depends.
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.
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.
Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.
Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise. For envy is a kind of praise.
Follow love and it will flee, flee love and it will follow thee.
We only part to meet again.
No retreat. No retreat. They must conquer or die who've no retreat.
Those who in quarrels interpose, must often wipe a bloody nose.
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.
The comfortable estate of widowhood is the only hope that keeps up a wife's spirits.
Shadow owes its birth to light.
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.
An open foe may prove a curse, but a pretended friend is worse.
She who has never loved has never lived.
But his kiss was so sweet, and so closely he pressed, that I languished and pined till I granted the rest.
There is no dependence that can be sure but a dependence upon one's self.
I must have women - there is nothing unbends the mind like them.
Do you think your mother and I should have lived comfortably so long together, if ever we had been married? Baggage!
Learning by study must be won; 'Twas ne'er entail'd from son to son.
Beasts kill for hunger, men for pay.
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.
Fair is the kingcup that in meadow blows, Fair is the daisy that beside her grows.
A man is always afraid of a woman that loves him too much
She who has never lov'd, has never liv'd.
One common fate we both must prove; You die with envy, I with love.
To cheat a man isnothing; but the womanmust have fine parts indeed who cheats a woman!
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.
Fair is the marigold, for pottage meet.
A woman's friendship ever ends in love.
Envy's a sharper spur than pay.
Praising all alike, is praising none.
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.
Thus shadow owes its birth to light.
Youth's the season made for joys, Love is then our duty.
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.
One wife is too much for most husbands to bear, But two at a time there's no mortal can bear.
Music might tame and civilize wild beasts, but 'tis evident it never yet could tame and civilize musicians.
And when a lady's in the case, You know, all other things give place.
What frenzy dictates, jealousy believes
'T is woman that seduces all mankind; By her we first were taught the wheedling arts.
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.
Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them!
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.
By outward show let's not be cheated; An ass should like an ass be treated.
Look round, the wrecks of play behold; Estates dismember'd, mortgaged, sold! Their owners now to jails confin'd, Show equal poverty of mind.
The luxury of doing good surpasses every other personal enjoyment.
You can only be called a hypocrite if you judge others first.
From kings to cobblers 'tis the same; Bad servants wound their masters' fame.
Lest men suspect your tale untrue, Keep probability in view.
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.
To friendship every burden's light.
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.
In love we are all fools alike.
Envy is a kind of praise.
Who talks much, must talk in vain.
Fair words cost nothing.
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