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Envy is a kind of praise.

John Gay

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John Gay
Age: 47 †
Born: 1685
Born: June 30
Died: 1732
Died: December 4
Librettist
Playwright
Poet
Writer
Barnstaple
Devon
Envy
Praise
Kind

More quotes by John Gay

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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.
John Gay
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Praising all alike, is praising none.
John Gay
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Can you support the expense of a husband, hussy, in gaming, drinking and whoring? Have you money enough to carry on the daily quarrels of man and wife about who shall squander most?
John Gay
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Around the steel no tortur'd worm shall twine, No blood of living insect stain my line Let me, less cruel, cast the feather'd hook, With pliant rod athwart the pebbled brook, Silent along the mazy margin stray, And with the fur-wrought fly delude the prey.
John Gay
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To frame the little animal, provide All the gay hues that wait on female pride: Let Nature guide thee sometimes golden wire The shining bellies of the fly require The peacock's plumes thy tackle must not fail, Nor the dear purchase of the sable's tail.
John Gay
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Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them!
John Gay
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Music might tame and civilize wild beasts, but 'tis evident it never yet could tame and civilize musicians.
John Gay
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In beauty faults conspicuous grow The smallest speck is seen on snow.
John Gay
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Envy's a sharper spur than pay: No author ever spar'd a brother Wits are gamecocks to one another.
John Gay
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If the heart of a man is depressed with cares, The mist is dispelled when a woman appears.
John Gay
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What will not luxury taste? Earth, sea, and air, Are daily ransack'd for the bill of fare. Blood stuffed in skins is British Christians' food, And France robs marshes of the croaking brood.
John Gay
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[Gulliver was soon being read] from the cabinet council to the nursery.
John Gay
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Who hath not heard the rich complain Of surfeits, and corporeal pain? He barr'd from every use of wealth, Envies the ploughman's strength and health.
John Gay
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I cannot raise my worth too high Of what vast consequence am I! Not of the importance you suppose, Replies a Flea upon his nose Be humble, learn thyself to scan Know, pride was never made for man.
John Gay
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Breathe soft, ye winds! ye waves, in silence sleep!
John Gay
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A man is always afraid of a woman that loves him too much
John Gay
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To shoot at crows is powder flung away.
John Gay
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Do you think your mother and I should have lived comfortably so long together, if ever we had been married? Baggage!
John Gay
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Envy's a sharper spur than pay.
John Gay
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Why is the hearse with scutcheons blazon'd round, And with the nodding plume of ostrich crown'd? No the dead know it not, nor profit gain It only serves to prove the living vain.
John Gay