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To shoot at crows is powder flung away.

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
Crows
Flung
Powder
Crow
Shoot
Away

More quotes by John Gay

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The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets.
John Gay
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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
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Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise. For envy is a kind of praise.
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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O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed, by keeping men off, you keep them on.
John Gay
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[Gulliver was soon being read] from the cabinet council to the nursery.
John Gay
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The luxury of doing good surpasses every other personal enjoyment.
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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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.
John Gay
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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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Learning by study must be won 'Twas ne'er entail'd from son to son.
John Gay
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To friendship every burden's light.
John Gay
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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.
John Gay
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Can love be controll'd by advice?
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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Fair words cost nothing.
John Gay
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Envy is a kind of praise.
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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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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No retreat. No retreat. They must conquer or die who've no retreat.
John Gay