John Gay Quotes - Page 3

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• 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

  Ignorance, Virtue, Eternity

  John Gay (1863). “The Poetical Works of John Gay: With a Life of the Author”, p.78

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

  John Gay

  Depression, Heart, Caring

  John Christopher Pepusch, John Gay (1962). “The beggar's opera”, Barrons Educational Series Inc

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• 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

  Play, Jail, Mind

  John Gay (1808). “Gay's Fables: In One Volume Complete”, p.107

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

  John Gay

  Men, Cheat, Fine

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• To friendship every burden's light.

  John Gay

  Friends, Light, Burden

  John Gay (1806). “The Poetical Works of John Gay, in Three Volumes: Collated with the Best Edition”, p.85

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

  John Gay

  Giving, Heaven, Mind

  'Fables' (1738) 'The Vulture, the Sparrow, and Other Birds' l. 69 Behold the bright original appear. 'A Letter to a Lady' l. 85

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• 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.

  John Gay

  Winter, Support, Maids

  John Gay (1826). “Gay's Fables and Other Poems: Cotton's Visions in Verse ; Moore's Fables for the Female Sex ; with Sketches of the Authors' Lives”, p.197

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

  John Gay

  Simple, Flames, Play

  1728 The Beggar's Opera, act 1, sc.4, air 4.

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

  John Gay

  Women, Mind

  'The Beggar's Opera' (1728) act 2, sc. 3

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

  John Gay

  Risk, Fiction, Tongue

  John Gay, Thomas Park (1808). “The Poetical Works of John Gay: In Three Volumes. Collated with the Best Editions:”, p.21

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• 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

  Judging, Debt, Demand

  John Gay (1818). “The beggar's opera. Oxberry's ed”, p.80

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

  John Gay

  Envy, May, Fool

  John Gay, Thomas Park (1808). “The Poetical Works of John Gay: In Three Volumes. Collated with the Best Editions:”, p.76

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• Can love be controll'd by advice?

  John Gay

  Love, Love Is, Advice

  John Gay (1791). “The Beggar's Opera: A Comic Opera”, p.26

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

  John Gay

  Book, Learning, Oil

  'Fables' (1727) introduction, l. 15.

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• 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

  Wine, Beer, Yield

  John Gay (1806). “The Poetical Works”, p.102

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• 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

  Husband, Drinking, Men

  John Gay (1782). “The Beggar's Opera”, p.12

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• 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

  Ostriches, Crowns, Nodding

  John Gay, Nathaniel Cotton, Edward Moore (1826). “Gay's Fables and other poems: Cotton's visions in verse ; Moore's Fables for the female sex ; with sketches of the authors' lives”, p.219

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• Exercise thy lasting youth defends.

  John Gay

  Exercise, Journey, Hiking

  John Gay, Marcus Walsh (2003). “Selected Poems”, p.43, Taylor & Francis

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• 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

  Flower, Journey, Views

  John Gay (1863). “The Poetical Works of John Gay: With a Life of the Author”, p.188

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• 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

  Humble, Pride, Men

  John Gay, Thomas Park (1808). “The Poetical Works of John Gay: In Three Volumes. Collated with the Best Editions:”, p.83

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• No author ever spar'd a brother.

  John Gay

  Brother

  John Gay (1799). “Fables by John Gay, with a Life of the Author”, p.55

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• 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

  Grieving, Cold, Dear

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• Breathe soft, ye winds! ye waves, in silence sleep!

  John Gay

  Peace, Sleep, Wind

  John Gay (1806). “The Poetical Works”, p.5

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

  John Gay

  Hills, Far Away, Over The Hill

  'The Beggar's Opera' (1728) act 1, sc. 13, air 16

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• The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets.

  John Gay

  Sweet, Lost, Treacle

  Nathaniel Lee, John Dryden, Arthur Murphy, George Farquhar, Hannah Cowley (1815). “Alexander the Great, Or, the Rival Queens. A Tragedy”

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