John Gay Quotes


"She who has never loved has never lived."
- John Gay
"Shadow owes its birth to light."
- John Gay
(Related: Light, Shadow)

"Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand."
- John Gay
(Related: Forget)

"The brave love mercy, and delight to save."
- John Gay
(Related: Love, Delight, Mercy)

"There is no dependence that can be sure but a dependence upon one's self."
- John Gay
(Related: Dependence, Self)

"Those who in quarrels interpose, must often wipe a bloody nose."
- John Gay
(Related: Quarrels)

"We only part to meet again."
- John Gay
"But his kiss was so sweet, and so closely he pressed, that I languished and pined till I granted the rest."
- John Gay
(Related: Kiss, Rest)

"On the choice of friends, Our good or evil name depends."
- John Gay
(Related: Choice, Evil, Friends, Name)

"What then in love can woman do? If we grow fond they shun us. And when we fly them, they pursue: But leave us when they've won us."
- John Gay
(Related: Love, Woman)

"O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed, by keeping men off, you keep them on."
- John Gay
(Related: Men)

"Cowards are cruel, but the brave love mercy and delight to save."
- John Gay
(Related: Love, Cowards, Delight, Mercy)

"An open foe may prove a curse, but a pretended friend is worse."
- John Gay
(Related: Friend, May, Open)

"But money, wife, is the true Fuller's Earth for reputations, there is not a spot or a stain but what it can take out."
- John Gay
(Related: Money, Wife, Earth)

"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
(Related: Company, Contempt, Gentleman, World)

"Follow love and it will flee, flee love and it will follow thee."
- John Gay
(Related: Love, Will)

"Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise. For envy is a kind of praise."
- John Gay
(Related: Envy, Fools, May, Praise)

"Gamesters and highwaymen are generally very good to their whores, but they are very devils to their wives."
- John Gay
(Related: Wives)

"I must have women - there is nothing unbends the mind like them."
- John Gay
(Related: Women, Mind, Nothing)

"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
(Related: Animals, Man)

"No retreat. No retreat. They must conquer or die who've no retreat."
- John Gay