John Gay Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  John Gay

  Men, Gambling, Quality

  John Gay (2013). “The Beggar's Opera and Polly”, p.95, OUP Oxford

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

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

  John Gay

  Men, Cheat, Fine

  5 Copy quote

• Exercise thy lasting youth defends.

  John Gay

  Exercise, Journey, Hiking

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

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  9 Copy quote

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

  John Gay

  Book, Learning, Oil

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

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  6 Copy quote

• Fill it up. I take as large draughts of liquor as I did of love. I hate a flincher in either.

  John Gay

  Love, Hate, Alcohol

  John Gay (2013). “The Beggar's Opera and Polly”, p.55, OUP Oxford

  4 Copy quote

• Whoever heard a man of fortune in England talk of the necessaries of life? . . . Whether we can afford it or no, we must have superfluities.

  John Gay

  Life, Men, England

  John Gay, John Christopher Pepusch (1729). “The Second Part of The Beggars Opera ...”, p.2

  4 Copy quote

• To shoot at crows is powder flung away.

  John Gay

  Crow, Powder

  John Gay (1863). “The Poetical Works of John Gay: With a Life of the Author”, p.111

  4 Copy quote

• Twas when the seas were roaring With hollow blasts of wind, A damsel lay deploring, All on a rock reclined.

  John Gay

  Rocks, Wind, Sea

  John Gay (1822). “The Poems of John Gay ...”, p.251

  4 Copy quote

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

  John Gay

  Happiness, Dear, Charmers

  'The Beggar's Opera' (1728) act 2, sc. 13, air 35

  6 Copy quote

• 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.

  John Gay

  Gentleman, World, Rogues

  John Gay (2013). “The Beggar's Opera and Polly”, p.59, OUP Oxford

  4 Copy quote

• Here Shock, the pride of all his kind, is laid, Who fawned like man, but ne'er like man betrayed.

  John Gay

  Friendship, Dog, Pride

  John Gay, “An Elegy On A Lap-Dog”

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  John Gay

  Night, Years, Frost

  John Gay (1782). “The Beggar's Opera”, p.19

  10 Copy quote

• [Gulliver was soon being read] "from the cabinet council to the nursery".

  John Gay

  Nurse, Gulliver, Cabinets

  "The 100 best novels, No 3 - Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726)" by Robert McCrum, www.theguardian.com. October 6, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

Page 4 of 4

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin