Top 80 John Gay Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Give me, kind heaven, a private station, a mind serene for contemplation.”

— John Gay

2. “Thus shadow owes its birth to light.”

— John Gay

3. “Fair words cost nothing.”

— John Gay

4. “Follow love and it will flee, flee love and it will follow thee.”

— John Gay

5. “Life is a jest, and all things show it, I thought so once, and now I know it.”

— John Gay

6. “In love we are all fools alike.”

— John Gay

7. “No retreat. No retreat. They must conquer or die who’ve no retreat.”

— John Gay

8. “Lions, wolves, and vultures don’t live together in herds, droves or flocks. Of all animals of prey, man is the only sociable one. Every one of us preys upon his neighbor, and yet we herd together.”

— John Gay

9. “Envy is a kind of praise.”

— John Gay

10. “Exercise thy lasting youth defends.”

— John Gay

11. “The luxury of doing good surpasses every other personal enjoyment.”

— John Gay

12. “Nor love, not honor, wealth nor power, can give the heart a cheerful hour when health is lost. Be timely wise; With health all taste of pleasure flies.”

— John Gay

13. “A Wolf eats sheep but now and then; Ten thousands are devour’d by men. An open foe may prove a curse, but a pretend friend is worse.”

— John Gay

14. “The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets.”

— John Gay

15. “A man is always afraid of a woman that loves him too much.”

— John Gay

16. “Lest men suspect your tale untrue, Keep probability in view.”

— John Gay

17. “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

18. “If with me you’d fondly stray Over the hills and far away.”

— John Gay

19. “Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil O’er books consumed the midnight oil?”

— John Gay

20. “Praising all alike, is praising none.”

— John Gay

21. “In every age and clime we see Two of a trade can never agree.”

— John Gay

22. “Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them!”

— John Gay

23. “Around the steel no tortur’d worm shall twine, No blood of living insect stain my line; Let me, less cruel, cast the feather’d hook, With pliant rod athwart the pebbled brook, Silent along the mazy margin stray, And with the fur-wrought fly delude the prey.”

— John Gay

24. “I hate the man who builds his name; On ruins of another’s fame.”

— John Gay

25. “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

26. “From kings to cobblers ‘tis the same; Bad servants wound their masters’ fame.”

— John Gay

27. “The comfortable estate of widowhood, is the only hope that keeps up a wife’s spirits.”

— John Gay

28. “How happy could I be with either, Were t’other dear charmer away!”

— John Gay

29. “Youth’s the season made for joys, Love is then our duty.”

— John Gay

30. “In beauty faults conspicuous grow; The smallest speck is seen on snow.”

— John Gay

31. “Is there no hope? the sick man said, The silent doctor shook his head, And took his leave with signs of sorrow, Despairing of his fee to-morrow.”

— John Gay

32. “Cowards are cruel, but the brave love mercy and delight to save.”

— John Gay

33. “Breathe soft, ye winds! ye waves, in silence sleep!”

— John Gay

34. “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

35. “Fair is the marigold, for pottage meet.”

— John Gay

36. “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

37. “By outward show let’s not be cheated; An ass should like an ass be treated.”

— John Gay

38. “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

39. “Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise. For envy is a kind of praise.”

— John Gay

40. “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

41. “I know you lawyers can with ease, Twist words and meanings as you please; That language, by your skill made pliant, Will bend to favour every client; That ’tis the fee directs the sense, To make out either side’s pretense.”

— John Gay

42. “When we risk no contradiction, It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction.”

— John Gay

43. “You can only be called a hypocrite if you judge others first.”

— John Gay

44. “O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed, by keeping men off, you keep them on.”

— John Gay

45. “But his kiss was so sweet, and so closely he pressed, that I languished and pined till I granted the rest.”

— John Gay

46. “Envy’s a sharper spur than pay.”

— John Gay

47. “What happiness the rural maid attends, In cheerful labour while each day she spends! She gratefully receives what Heav’n has sent, And, rich in poverty, enjoys content.”

— John Gay

48. “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

49. “Who friendship with a knave hath made, Is judged a partner in the trade.”

— John Gay

50. “Love is so whimsical in both sexes that it is impossible to be lasting. But my heart is particular and contradicts my own observation.”

— John Gay