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

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
Seen
Grows
Speck
Beauty
Conspicuous
Specks
Smallest
Snow
Faults
Grow

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To shoot at crows is powder flung away.
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[Gulliver was soon being read] from the cabinet council to the nursery.
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I must have women - there is nothing unbends the mind like them.
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Gamesters and highwaymen are generally very good to their whores, but they are very devils to their wives.
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Is there no hope? the sick man said, The silent doctor shook his head, And took his leave with signs of sorrow, Despairing of his fee to-morrow.
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Learning by study must be won 'Twas ne'er entail'd from son to son.
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No retreat. No retreat. They must conquer or die who've no retreat.
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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.
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Envy is a kind of praise.
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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.
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Envy's a sharper spur than pay.
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The careful insect 'midst his works I view, Now from the flowers exhaust the fragrant dew, With golden treasures load his little thighs, And steer his distant journey through the skies.
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Fair is the marigold, for pottage meet.
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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.
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Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them!
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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.
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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?
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Can love be controll'd by advice?
John Gay
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Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise. For envy is a kind of praise.
John Gay
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A rich rogue nowadays is fit company for any gentleman and the world, my dear, hath not such a contempt for roguery as you imagine.
John Gay