Famous Quotes by John Gay

  • O ruddier than the cherry,
    O sweeter than the berry,
    O Nymph more bright
    Than... More
  • Lions, wolves, and vultures don’t live together in herds, droves or flocks. Of all animals of... More
  • But his kiss was so sweet, and so closely he pressed,
    That I languished and pined till I... More
  • Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them! More
  • I must have women—there is nothing unbends the mind like them. More
  • Of all mechanics, of all servile handycrafts-men, a gamester is the vilest. But yet, as many of... More
  • O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed,
    By keeping men off, you keep them on. More
  • How the mother is to be pitied who hath handsome daughters! Locks, bolts, bars, and lectures of... More
  • If love the virgin’s heart invade,
    How, like a moth, the simple maid
    Still plays about... More
  • Fill it up. I take as large draughts of liquor as I did of love. I hate a flincher in either. More
  • Life is a jest; and all things show it.
    I thought so once; but now I know it. More
  • The comfortable estate of widowhood is the only hope that keeps up a wife’s spirits. More
  • But money, wife, is the true Fuller’s Earth for reputations, there is not a spot or a stain but... More
  • A rich rogue now-a-days is fit company for any gentleman; and the world, my dear, hath not such a... More
  • Gamesters and highwaymen are generally very good to their whores, but they are very devils to... More
  • Do you think your mother and I should have lived comfortably so long together, if ever we had... More
  • Through all the employments of life
    Each neighbour abuses his brother;
    Whore and rogue... More
  • Can you support the expense of a husband, hussy, in gaming, drinking and whoring? Have you money... More
  • A fox may steal your hens, Sir,
    A whore your health and pence, Sir,
    Your daughter rob... More
  • What then in love can woman do?
    If we grow fond they shun us.
    And when we fly them, they... More
  • Can love be controlled by advice?
    Will Cupid our mothers obey?
    Though my heart were as... More
  • “O Susan, Susan, lovely dear,
    My vows shall ever true remain;
    Let me kiss off that... More
  • We only part to meet again.
    Change, as ye list, ye winds: my heart shall be
    The faithful... More
  • If the heart of a man is deprest with cares,
    The mist is dispell’d when a woman... More
  • Before the Barn-Door crowing,
    The Cock by Hens attended,
    His Eyes around him... More
  • Were I laid on Greenland’s Coast,
    And in my Arms embrac’d my Lass;
    Warm amidst... More
  • And I would love you all the Day,
    Every Night would kiss and play,
    If with me you’d... More
  • Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise.
    For envy is a kind of praise. More
  • Those who in quarrels interpose,
    Must often wipe a bloody nose. More
  • An open foe may prove a curse,
    But a pretended friend is worse. More

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