John Gay Quotes

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

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.

Life is a jest; and all things show it. I thought so once; and now I know it.

And when a lady's in the case,
You know all other things give place.

I must have women—there is nothing unbends the mind like them.

Where yet was ever found a mother
Who'd give her booby for another?

'Twas when the seas were roaring With hollow blasts of wind, A damsel lay deploring, All on a rock reclined.

Whence thy learning? Hath thy toil
O'er books consumed the midnight oil?

Envy is a kind of praise.

Over the hills and far away.

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.

Through all the Employments of Life Each Neighbour abuses his Brother;
Whore and Rogue they call Husband and Wife:
All Professions be-rogue one another:
The Priest calls the Lawyer a Cheat,
The Lawyer be-knaves the Divine:
And the Statesman, because he's so great, Thinks his Trade as honest as mine.

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.

Give me, kind Heaven, a private station,
A mind serene for contemplation:
Title and profit I resign;
The post of honour shall be mine.

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.