John Gay: Trending quotes (page 2)

John Gay

Fable X, "The Elephant and the Bookseller"
Fables (1727)

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

John Gay

Fable XXI, "The Rat-catcher and Cats". Comparable to: "Potter is jealous of potter, and craftsman of craftsman; and poor man has a grudge against poor man, and poet against poet", Hesiod, Works and Days, 24; "Le potier au potier porte envie" (translated: "The potter envies the potter"), Bohn, Handbook of Proverbs; also in Arthur Murphy, The Apprentice, act iii
Fables (1727)

Age

“No retreat. No retreat. They must conquer or die who’ve no retreat.”

John Gay

"We’ve Cheated the Parson" (song), Polly: an Opera (1729), Air 46, Act II, sc. x

“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.”

John Gay

Fable LXIII, "Plutus, Cupid, and Time"
Fables (1727)

Love , Friendship

“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.”

John Gay

"Player", Introduction
The Beggar's Opera (1728)

Success , Gratitude

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

John Gay

The Vulture, the Sparrow, and other Birds. Comparable to: "When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honour is a private station", Joseph Addison, Cato, Act iv, scene 4
Fables (1727), Fables, Part the Second (1738)

“If love be not his Guide,
He never will come back!”

John Gay

Lucy, Act II, sc. xv, air 40
The Beggar's Opera (1728)

Love

“You base man you,—how can you look me in the face after what hath passed between us?—See here, perfidious wretch, how I am forc'd to bear about the load of infamy you have laid upon me— -O Macheath! thou hast robb'd me of my quiet—to see thee tortur'd would give me pleasure.”

John Gay

Lucy, Act II, sc. ix
The Beggar's Opera (1728)

Pleasure

“If the heart of a man is depressed with cares,
The mist is dispell'd when a woman appears;
Like the notes of a fiddle, she sweetly, sweetly
Raises the spirits, and charms our ears.”

John Gay

Act II, sc. iii, air 21
The Beggar's Opera (1728)

Appearance , Heart

“Macheath: And I would love you all the day,
Polly: Every night would kiss and play,
Macheath: If with me you’d fondly stray
Polly: Over the hills and far away.”

John Gay

Act I, sc. xxxiii, air 16
The Beggar's Opera (1728)

Love , Kiss , Night

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

John Gay

Fable III, "The Mother, the Nurse, and the Fairy"
Fables (1727)

“How happy I am, if you say this from your heart! For I love thee so, that I could sooner bear to see thee hang'd than in the Arms of another.”

John Gay

Lucy, Act II, sc. xv
The Beggar's Opera (1728)

Love , Heart , Happiness

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

John Gay

My Own Epitaph, inscribed on Gay’s monument in Westminster Abbey; also quoted as "I thought so once; but now I know it".
Variant: Life is a jest, and all things show it,
I thought so once, and now I know it.

Life

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

John Gay

Mrs. Trapes, Act III, sc. vi
The Beggar's Opera (1728)

Love , Hate

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

John Gay

Fable XI, "The Peacock, Turkey, and Goose"
Fables (1727)

Beauty

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

John Gay

Fable X, "The Elephant and the Bookseller"
Fables (1727)