“Follow love and it will flee, flee love and it will follow thee.”
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Famous John Gay Quotes
“Cowards are cruel, but the brave love mercy and delight to save.”
Source: Gay's Fables and other poems: Cotton's visions in verse ; Moore's Fables for the female sex ; with sketches of the authors' lives
“There is no dependence that can be sure but a dependence upon one's self.”
Source: The beggar's opera: and companion pieces
“O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed, by keeping men off, you keep them on.”
Source: The Beggar's Opera
“Beasts kill for hunger, men for pay.”
Source: Gay's Fables, etc
“The luxury of doing good surpasses every other personal enjoyment.”
Source: The Poetical Works of John Gay: With a Life of the Author
“Fill it up. I take as large draughts of liquor as I did of love. I hate a flincher in either.”
Source: The Beggar's Opera and Polly
Source: The Poetical Works of John Gay: Translations, Prologues and epilogues, Fables, Poems from 'Gay's chair', Miscellaneous pieces, Songs and ballads
Source: Plays Written by Mr. John Gay: Viz. The Captives, ... The Beggar's Opera. Polly, ... Achilles, ... The Distress'd Wife, ... The Rehearsal at Gotham, ... To which is Prefixed An Account of the Life and Writings of the Author
“Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise. For envy is a kind of praise.”
Source: The Poetical Works of John Gay: In Three Volumes. Collated with the Best Editions:
“Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them!”
Source: The Beggar's Opera: A Comic Opera. By John Gay. Adapted for Theatrical Representation, as Performed at the Theatre-Royal, Drury-Lane. Regulated from the Prompt-book, ...
“I must have women - there is nothing unbends the mind like them.”
Source: The Poetical Works of John Gay: With a Life of the Author
“If the heart of a man is depressed with cares, The mist is dispelled when a woman appears.”
Source: The Beggar's Opera
Source: The Poetical Works of John Gay: Including 'Polly', 'The Beggar's Opera' and Selections from the Other Dramatic Work
“Give me, kind heaven, a private station, a mind serene for contemplation.”
“No retreat. No retreat. They must conquer or die who've no retreat.”
Source: Dramatic works
“Lest men suspect your tale untrue, Keep probability in view.”
“'T is woman that seduces all mankind; By her we first were taught the wheedling arts.”
Source: The Beggar's Opera
Source: The Poetical works
Source: The Beggar's Opera and Polly
Source: The Second Part of The Beggars Opera ...
“Can love be controll'd by advice?”
Source: The Beggar's Opera: A Comic Opera
Source: The Beggar's Opera
“Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil O'er books consumed the midnight oil?”
“You can only be called a hypocrite if you judge others first.”
“What frenzy dictates, jealousy believes”
Source: Poems on Several Occasions... by Mr. John Gay...
“How happy could I be with either, Were t'other dear charmer away!”
“Here Shock, the pride of all his kind, is laid, Who fawned like man, but ne'er like man betrayed.”
“[Gulliver was soon being read] "from the cabinet council to the nursery".”
Source: The Poetical Works of John Gay: In Three Volumes. Collated with the Best Editions:
Source: The Beggar's Opera and Polly
“In every age and clime we see Two of a trade can never agree.”
Source: The Poetical Works of John Gay: With a Life of the Author
“Exercise thy lasting youth defends.”
Source: Selected poems
“In beauty faults conspicuous grow; The smallest speck is seen on snow.”
Source: Fables ... In one volume complete
“By outward show let's not be cheated; An ass should like an ass be treated.”
Source: Fables. Invented for the amusement of His Highness William Duke of Cumberland ... The third edition
“The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets.”
Source: Alexander the Great, Or, the Rival Queens. A Tragedy
“When we risk no contradiction, It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction.”
Source: The Poetical Works of John Gay: In Three Volumes. Collated with the Best Editions:
Source: The Beggar's Opera
Source: The Poetical Works of John Gay: With a Life of the Author
Source: The Beggar's Opera: A Comic Opera
Source: The Mohocks, a farce [signed W.B.].
“To friendship every burden's light.”
Source: The Poetical Works of John Gay, in Three Volumes: Collated with the Best Edition