John Gay: Quotes about life

John Gay was English poet and playwright. Explore interesting quotes on life.

John Gay: 112 quotes0 likes

“Fill ev'ry glass, 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?”

John Gay

Matt, Act II, sc. i, air 19
The Beggar's Opera (1728)

“While there is life there 's hope, he cried.”

John Gay

Fable, The Sick Man and the Angel
Comparable to: "For the living there is hope, but for the dead there is none", Theocritus (3rd century BC), Idyl iv, 42; "Ægroto, dum anima est, spes est" ("While the sick man has life, there is hope", Cicero (1st century BC), Epistolarum ad Atticum, ix, 10
Fables (1727)

“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.

“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.”

John Gay

Peachum, Act I, air 1
The Beggar's Opera (1728)