John Gay Quotes - Page 3

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

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.

If with me you'd fondly stray Over the hills and far away.

The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets.

Shall ignorance of good and ill Dare to direct the eternal will? Seek virtue, and of that possest, To Providence resign the rest.

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

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

Look round, the wrecks of play behold; Estates dismember'd, mortgaged, sold! Their owners now to jails confin'd, Show equal poverty of mind.

To cheat a man isnothing; but the womanmust have fine parts indeed who cheats a woman!

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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?

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.

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.

No author ever spar'd a brother.

In every age and clime we see Two of a trade can never agree.

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.