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The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul is so limited in power! We reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that hides the infinite from us. Maria Mitchell		Friday Nov 07, 2025
		Quotes: 53419 Authors: 9969

About John Gay

John Gay

John Gay

John Gay (30 June 1685 - 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera (1728), set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peachum, became household names.

Popular John Gay Quotes

Youth's the season made for joys, Love is then our duty.

'T is woman that seduces all mankind; By her we first were taught the wheedling arts.

Fill ev'ryglass, for wine inspires us, And fires us With courage, love and joy. Women and wine should life employ. Is there ought else on earth desirous?

From wine what sudden friendship springs!

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

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

O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed By keeping men off, you keep them on.

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

Praising all alike is praising none.

If with me you'd fondly stray. Over the hills and far away.

Whoever heard a man of fortune in England talk of the necessaries of life? ... Whether we can afford it or no, we must have superfluities.

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

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.

If the heart of a man is depressed with cares, The mist is dispelled when a woman appears.

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.

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

A fox may steal your hens, sir .... If lawyers hand is feed, sir He steals your whole estate.

Those who in quarrels interpose Must often wipe a bloody nose.

All in the Downs the fleet was moored.

Adieu! she cries; and waved her lily hand.

Now Cynthia, named fair regent of the night.

How happy could I be with either, Were t'other dear charmer away!

The charge is prepar'd, the lawyers are met, The judges all ranged,a terrible show!

When we risk no contradiction It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction.

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

I hate the man who builds his name On ruins of another's fame.

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

Those who in quarrels interpose, must often wipe a bloody nose.

If with me you'd fondly stray, over the hills and far away.

An open foe may prove a curse, but a pretended friend is worse.

Fools may our scorn, not envy raise, for envy is a kind of praise.

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

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 tomorrow.

Where yet was ever found a mother, who'd give her booby for another.

Love, then, hath every bliss in store; 'Tis friendship, and 'tis something more. Each other every wish they give; Not to know love is not to live.

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

I rage, I melt, I burn, the feeble God has stabbed me to the heart.

Nor love, nor honour, wealth nor power, Can give the heart a cheerful hour When health is lost, be timely wise; With health all taste of pleasure flies.

Pride is to the character, like the attic to the house the highest part, and generally the most empty.

Do you think your mother and I should have lived comfortably so long together, if ever we had been married?

The prince who kept the world in awe, the judge whose dictate fixed the law; The rich, the poor, the great, the small, are leveled; death confounds 'em all.

The brave love mercy, and delight to save.

Shall ignorance of good and ill Dare to direct the eternal will? Seek virtue, and of that possest, To Providence resign the rest.

Pride is increased by ignorance; those assume the most who know the least.

The smallest speck is seen on snow.

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