John Gay quotes

Life is a jest; and all things show it. I thought so once; and now I know it. (John Gay)
Those who in quarrels intepose Must often wipe a bloody nose.
John Gay
Envy is a kind of praise.
John Gay
Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them!
John Gay
No retreat. No retreat. They must conquer or die who've no retreat.
John Gay
I must have women-there is nothing unbends the mind like them.
John Gay
O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed, By keeping men off, you keep them on.
John Gay
In every age and clime we see Two of a trade can never agree.
John Gay
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.
John Gay
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
Youth's the season made for joys, Love is then our duty. (John Gay)
T is woman that seduces all mankind; By her we first were taught the wheedling arts.
John Gay
Man may escape from rope and gun; Nay, some have outlived the doctor's pill: Who takes a woman must be undone, That basilisk is sure to kill. The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets, So he that tastes woman, woman, woman, He that tastes woman, ruin meets.
John Gay
Whence thy learning? Hath thy toil O'er books consumed the midnight oil?
John Gay
So comes a reckoning when the banquet's o'er,- The dreadful reckoning, and men smile no more.
John Gay
And when a lady's in the case, You know all other things give place.
John Gay
Do you think your Mother and I should have liv'd comfortably so long together, if ever we had been married?
John Gay
A man is always afraid of a woman that loves him too much.
John Gay
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.
John Gay
No author ever spar'd a brother.
John Gay
Fill it up. I take as large draughts of liquor as I did of love. I hate a flincher in either. (John Gay)
When we risk no contradiction, It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction.
John Gay
Twas when the seas were roaring With hollow blasts of wind, A damsel lay deploring, All on a rock reclined.
John Gay
By outward show let's not be cheated; An ass should like an ass be treated.
John Gay
Lest men suspect your tale untrue, Keep probability in view.
John Gay