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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

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John Gay
Age: 47 †
Born: 1685
Born: June 30
Died: 1732
Died: December 4
Librettist
Playwright
Poet
Writer
Barnstaple
Devon
Vain
Ostriches
Profit
Nodding
Gains
Crown
Prove
Crowns
Dead
Serves
Living
Round
Plume
Rounds
Hearse
Gain
Ostrich

More quotes by 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!
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Man may escape from rope and gun Nay, some have outlived the doctor's pill: Who takes a woman must be undone, That basilisk is sure to kill. The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets, So he that tastes woman, woman, woman, He that tastes woman, ruin meets.
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Envy's a sharper spur than pay.
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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.
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In every age and clime we see Two of a trade can never agree.
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O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed, by keeping men off, you keep them on.
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Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise. For envy is a kind of praise.
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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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Beasts kill for hunger, men for pay.
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The charge is prepared the lawyers are met The judges all ranged (a terrible show!) I go, undismay'd. For death is a debt, A debt on demand. So take what I owe.
John Gay
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Envy is a kind of praise.
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Can love be controll'd by advice?
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[Gulliver was soon being read] from the cabinet council to the nursery.
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Lions, wolves, and vultures don't live together in herds, droves or flocks. Of all animals of prey, man is the only sociable one. Every one of us preys upon his neighbor, and yet we herd together.
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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.
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You can only be called a hypocrite if you judge others first.
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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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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.
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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?
John Gay