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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

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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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.
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The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets.
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Nor love, not honor, wealth nor power, can give the heart a cheerful hour when health is lost. Be timely wise With health all taste of pleasure flies.
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O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed, by keeping men off, you keep them on.
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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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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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Envy's a sharper spur than pay: No author ever spar'd a brother Wits are gamecocks to one another.
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Shall ignorance of good and ill Dare to direct the eternal will? Seek virtue, and of that possest, To Providence resign the rest.
John Gay
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Fair words cost nothing.
John Gay
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Can love be controll'd by advice?
John Gay
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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.
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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If the heart of a man is depressed with cares, The mist is dispelled when a woman appears.
John Gay
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Breathe soft, ye winds! ye waves, in silence sleep!
John Gay
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Fair is the kingcup that in meadow blows, Fair is the daisy that beside her grows.
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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I must have women - there is nothing unbends the mind like them.
John Gay
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Learning by study must be won 'Twas ne'er entail'd from son to son.
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