John Gay Quotes

1685–1732 England

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.

England
Playwrights
Poets

Also known as: Gay, John

Random John Gay quote

109 quotes

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

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)

Where the brass knocker, wrapt in flannel band,
Forbids the thunder of the footman's hand,
The' upholder, rueful harbinger of death,
Waits with impatience for the dying breath.

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)

One common fate we both must prove;
You die with envy, I with love.

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)

With thee conversing, I forget the way.

The charge is prepared; the lawyers are met;
The judges all ranged (a terrible show!)
I go, undismay'd.—For death is a debt,
A debt on demand.—So take what I owe.

The Beggar's Opera (1728)

Studious of elegance and ease.

Fables (1727)

When if or chance or hunger's powerful sway
Directs the roving trout this fatal way,
He greedily sucks in the twining bait,
And tugs and nibbles the fallacious meat.

Rural Sports (1713)

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.

Rural Sports (1713)

Soon as Aurora drives away the night,
And edges eastern clouds with rosy light,
The healthy huntsman, with the cheerful horn,
Summons the dogs, and greets the dappled morn.

Rural Sports (1713)

Fill it up. I take as large draughts of liquor as I did of love. I hate a flincher in either.

The Beggar's Opera (1728)

My tongue within my lips I rein;
For who talks much must talk in vain.

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

Fables (1727)

My new straw hat that's trimly lin'd with green,
Let Peggy wear.

In other men we faults can spy,
And blame the mote that dims their eye;
Each little speck and blemish find,
To our own stronger errors blind.

"Adieu," she cries, and waved her lily hand.

Attribution

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