All Quotes by John Gay
“'Twas when the seas were roaring All on a rock reclined.”
“My lodging is on the cold ground, Is the coldness of my dear.”
“No retreat. No retreat. They must conquer or die who’ve no retreat.”
“Life is a jest; and all things show it. I thought so once; and now I know it.”
“Whence thy learning? Hath thy toilO'er books consumed the midnight oil?”
“Where yet was ever found a motherWho'd give her booby for another?”
“When we risk no contradiction,It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction.”
“In beauty faults conspicuous grow;The smallest speck is seen on snow.”
“A Wolf eats sheep but now and then; but a pretend friend is worse.”
“In every age and clime we seeTwo of a trade can never agree.”
“Those who in quarrels inteposeMust often wipe a bloody nose.”
“Envy is a kind of praise.”
“I hate the man who builds his nameThink slander can transplant the bays.”
“And when a lady's in the case,You know all other things give place.”
“Love, then, hath every bliss in store; Not to know love is not to live.”
“From wine what sudden friendship springs!”
“By outward show let's not be cheated;An ass should like an ass be treated.”
“If Poverty be a Title to Poetry, I am sure nobody can dispute mine. I own myself of the Company of Beggars; and I make one at their Weekly Festivals at St. Giles's. I have a small Yearly Salary for my Catches, and am welcome to a Dinner there whenever I please, which is more than most Poets can say.”
“As we live by the Muses, it is but a Gratitude in us to encourage Poetical Merit wherever we find it. The Muses, contrary to all other Ladies, pay no Distinction to Dress, and never partially mistake the Pertness of Embroidery for Wit, nor the Modesty of Want for Dulness. Be the Author who he will, we push his Play as far as it will go. So (though you are in Want) I wish you success heartily.”
“Through all the Employments of Life Thinks his Trade as honest as mine.”
“You know, my Dear, I never meddle in matters of Death; I always leave those Affairs to you. Women indeed are bitter bad Judges in these cases, for they are so partial to the Brave that they think every Man handsome who is going to the Camp or the Gallows.”
“How the mother is to be pitied who hath handsome daughters! Locks, bolts, bars, and lectures of morality are nothing to them: they break through them all. They have as much pleasure in cheating a father and mother, as in cheating at cards.”
“Do you think your Mother and I should have liv'd comfortably so long together, if ever we had been married?”
“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? There are not many husbands and wives, who can bear the charges of plaguing one another in a handsome way.”
“O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed, By keeping men off, you keep them on.”
“Were I laid on Greenland’s Coast, Too soon the Half Year’s Night would pass.”
“Macheath: And I would love you all the day, Polly: Over the hills and far away.”
“Fill ev'ry glass, for wine inspires us, Is there ought else on earth desirous?”
“If the heart of a man is depressed with cares, Raises the spirits, and charms our ears.”
“I must have women—there is nothing unbends the mind like them.”
“Youth's the season made for joys, Love is then our duty.”
“Before the Barn-Door crowing, And how do you do again.”
“Man may escape from rope and gun; He that tastes woman, ruin meets.”
“You base man you,—how can you look me in the face after what hath passed between us?—See here, perfidious wretch, how I am forc'd to bear about the load of infamy you have laid upon me— -O Macheath! thou hast robb'd me of my quiet—to see thee tortur'd would give me pleasure.”
“Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them!”
“How happy could I be with either, Were t'other dear charmer away!”
“How happy I am, if you say this from your heart! For I love thee so, that I could sooner bear to see thee hang'd than in the Arms of another.”
“If love be not his Guide, He never will come back!”
“Fill it up. I take as large draughts of liquor as I did of love. I hate a flincher in either.”
“I don't enquire after your Affairs-- --so whatever happens, I wash my hands on't---- It hath always been my Maxim, that one Friend should assist another-- --But if you please----I'll take one of the Scarfs home with me. 'Tis always good to have something in Hand.”
“The charge is prepared; the lawyers are met; A debt on demand.—So take what I owe.”
“Follow love and it will flee, flee love and it will follow thee.”
“The comfortable estate of widowhood is the only hope that keeps up a wife's spirits.”