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Quotes from Fables — John Gay

1685–1732 England

← All quotes by John Gay

33 quotes

The prince who kept the world in awe,
The judge whose dictate fix'd the law;
The rich, the poor, the great, the small,
Are levell'd; death confounds 'em all.

Fables (1727)

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

Fables (1727)

A lost good name is ne'er retriev'd.

Fables (1727)

I never, with important air,
In conversation overbear.
* * * *
My tongue within my lips I rein;
For who talks much must talk in vain.

Fables (1727)

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

Fables (1727)

When rogues like these (a sparrow cries)
To honours and employments rise,
I court no favor, ask no place,
For such preferment is disgrace.

Fables (1727)

Studious of elegance and ease.

Fables (1727)

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

Fables (1727)

Remote from cities liv'd a swain,
Unvex'd with all the cares of gain;
His head was silver'd o'er with age,
And long experience made him sage.

Fables (1727)

No author ever spar'd a brother.

Fables (1727)

Envy is a kind of praise.

Fables (1727)

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.

Fables (1727)

Introduction, "The Shepherd and the Philosopher"; "Midnight oil" was a common phrase, used by Quarles, Shenstone, Cowper, Lloyd, and others.

Fables (1727)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: John Gay (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.