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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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John Gay
Age: 47 †
Born: 1685
Born: June 30
Died: 1732
Died: December 4
Librettist
Playwright
Poet
Writer
Barnstaple
Devon
Wealth
Envies
Heard
Corporeal
Rich
Complain
Pain
Hath
Use
Complaining
Every
Envy
Strength
Barr
Health
Ploughman

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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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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.
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Envy is a kind of praise.
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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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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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Youth's the season made for joys, Love is then our duty.
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[Gulliver was soon being read] from the cabinet council to the nursery.
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Fair is the marigold, for pottage meet.
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To shoot at crows is powder flung away.
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I must have women - there is nothing unbends the mind like them.
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A man is always afraid of a woman that loves him too much
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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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Envy's a sharper spur than pay.
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Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them!
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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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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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Breathe soft, ye winds! ye waves, in silence sleep!
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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.
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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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Envy's a sharper spur than pay: No author ever spar'd a brother Wits are gamecocks to one another.
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