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Of All The Fools That Pride Can Boast, A Coxcomb Claims Distinction Most.

-John Gay

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Of All The Fools

John Gay

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Of All The Fools That Pride Can Boast, A Coxcomb Claims Distinction Most.

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What Frenzy Dictates, Jealousy Believes

By Outward Show Let's Not Be Cheated; An Ass Should Like An Ass Be Treated.

Praising All Alike, Is Praising None.

Learning By Study Must Be Won; 'twas Ne'er Entail'd From Son To Son.

If The Heart Of A Man Is Depressed With Cares, The Mist Is Dispelled When A Woman Appears.

Twas When The Seas Were Roaring With Hollow Blasts Of Wind, A Damsel Lay Deploring, All On A Rock Reclined.

Breathe Soft, Ye Winds! Ye Waves, In Silence Sleep!

What Happiness The Rural Maid Attends, In Cheerful Labour While Each Day She Spends! She Gratefully Receives What Heav'n Has Sent, And, Rich In Poverty, Enjoys Content.

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.

What Will Not Luxury Taste? Earth, Sea, And Air, Are Daily Ransack'd For The Bill Of Fare. Blood Stuffed In Skins Is British Christians' Food, And France Robs Marshes Of The Croaking Brood.

Follow Love And It Will Flee, Flee Love And It Will Follow Thee.

So Comes A Reck'ning When The Banquet's O'er, The Dreadful Reckn'ning, And Men Smile No More.

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.

Let Firm, Well Hammer'd Soles Protect Thy Feet Through Freezing Snows, And Rains, And Soaking Sleet; Should The Big Last Extend The Shoe Too Wide, Each Stone Will Wrench The Unwary Step Aside; The Sudden Turn May Stretch The Swelling Vein, The Cracking Joint Unhinge, Or Ankle Sprain; And When Too Short The Modish Shoes Are Worn, You'll Judge The Seasons By Your Shooting Corn.

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.

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?

There Is No Dependence That Can Be Sure But A Dependence Upon One's Self.

Dependence On Others

Who Friendship With A Knave Hath Made, Is Judged A Partner In The Trade.

Who Talks Much, Must Talk In Vain.

You Can Only Be Called A Hypocrite If You Judge Others First.

If The Heart Of A Man Is Depressed With Cares, The Mist Is Dispell'd When A Woman Appears; Like The Notes Of A Fiddle, She Sweetly, Sweetly Raises The Spirits, And Charms Our Ears.

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.

Woman's Mind Oft' Shifts Her Passions, Like Th'inconstant Wind; Sudden She Rages, Like The Troubled Main, Now Sinks The Storm, And All Is Calm Again.

Envy Is A Kind Of Praise.

Can Love Be Controll'd By Advice?

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.

She Who Has Never Lov'd, Has Never Liv'd.

But His Kiss Was So Sweet, And So Closely He Pressed, That I Languished And Pined Till I Granted The Rest.

Do You Think Your Mother And I Should Have Lived Comfortably So Long Together, If Ever We Had Been Married? Baggage!

Beasts Kill For Hunger, Men For Pay.

Sure Men Were Born To Lie, And Women To Believe Them!

To Shoot At Crows Is Powder Flung Away.

Were I Laid On Greenland's Coast, And In My Arms Embrac'd My Lass; Warm Amidst Eternal Frost, Too Soon The Half Year's Night Would Pass.

I Must Have Women - There Is Nothing Unbends The Mind Like Them.

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?

A Man Is Always Afraid Of A Woman That Loves Him Too Much

O Polly, You Might Have Toyed And Kissed, By Keeping Men Off, You Keep Them On.

No Retreat. No Retreat. They Must Conquer Or Die Who've No Retreat.

A Wolf Eats Sheep But Now And Then; Ten Thousands Are Devour'd By Men. An Open Foe May Prove A Curse, But A Pretend Friend Is Worse.

Lest Men Suspect Your Tale Untrue, Keep Probability In View.

The Sun Was Set; The Night Came On Apace, And Falling Dews Bewet Around The Place; The Bat Takes Airy Rounds On Leathern Wings, And The Hoarse Owl His Woeful Dirges Sings.

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.

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.

How, Like A Moth, The Simple Maid Still Plays Around The Flame!

The Luxury Of Doing Good Surpasses Every Other Personal Enjoyment.

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.

And When A Lady's In The Case, You Know, All Other Things Give Place.

I Know You Lawyers Can With Ease, Twist Words And Meanings As You Please; That Language, By Your Skill Made Pliant, Will Bend To Favour Every Client; That 'tis The Fee Directs The Sense, To Make Out Either Side's Pretense.

In Every Age And Clime We See Two Of A Trade Can Never Agree.

Envy's A Sharper Spur Than Pay.

Fools May Our Scorn, Not Envy, Raise. For Envy Is A Kind Of Praise.

From Kings To Cobblers 'tis The Same; Bad Servants Wound Their Masters' Fame.

Fair Is The Kingcup That In Meadow Blows, Fair Is The Daisy That Beside Her Grows.

Fair Words Cost Nothing.

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.

In Love We Are All Fools Alike.

Variety's The Source Of Joy Below, From Whence Still Fresh-revolving Pleasures Flow, In Books And Love The Mind One End Pursues, And Only Change The Expiring Flames Renews.

When If Or Chance Or Hunger's Powerful Sway Directs The Roving Trout This Fatal Way, He Greedily Sucks In The Twining Bait, And Tugs And Nibbles The Fallacious Meat. Now, Happy Fisherman; Now Twitch The Line! How Thy Rod Bends! Behold, The Prize Is Thine!

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.

Youth's The Season Made For Joys, Love Is Then Our Duty.

Good Housewives All The Winter's Rage Despise, Defended By The Riding-hood's Disguise; Or, Underneath The Umbrella's Oily Shade, Safe Through The Wet On Clinking Pattens Tread, Let Persian Dames The Unbrella's Ribs Display, To Guard Their Beauties From The Sunny Ray; Or Sweating Slaves Support The Shady Load, When Eastern Monarchs Show Their State Abroad; Britain In Winter Only Knows Its Aid, To Guard From Chilling Showers The Walking Maid.

When We Risk No Contradiction, It Prompts The Tongue To Deal In Fiction.

If With Me You'd Fondly Stray Over The Hills And Far Away.

't Is Woman That Seduces All Mankind; By Her We First Were Taught The Wheedling Arts.

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.

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.

Shall Ignorance Of Good And Ill Dare To Direct The Eternal Will? Seek Virtue, And Of That Possest, To Providence Resign The Rest.

Of All Mechanics, Of All Servile Handycrafts-men, A Gamester Is The Vilest. But Yet, As Many Of The Quality Are Of The Profession, He Is Admitted Amongst The Politest Company.

To Friendship Every Burden's Light.

Envy's A Sharper Spur Than Pay: No Author Ever Spar'd A Brother; Wits Are Gamecocks To One Another.

Give Me, Kind Heaven, A Private Station, A Mind Serene For Contemplation.

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.

Gamesters And Highwaymen Are Generally Very Good To Their Whores, But They Are Very Devils To Their Wives.

The Fly That Sips Treacle Is Lost In The Sweets.

Look Round, The Wrecks Of Play Behold; Estates Dismember'd, Mortgaged, Sold! Their Owners Now To Jails Confin'd, Show Equal Poverty Of Mind.

Of All The Fools That Pride Can Boast, A Coxcomb Claims Distinction Most.

No Author Ever Spar'd A Brother.

One Wife Is Too Much For Most Husbands To Bear, But Two At A Time There's No Mortal Can Bear.

One Common Fate We Both Must Prove; You Die With Envy, I With Love.

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.

Fill It Up. I Take As Large Draughts Of Liquor As I Did Of Love. I Hate A Flincher In Either.

Cowards Are Cruel, But The Brave Love Mercy And Delight To Save.

Whence Is Thy Learning? Hath Thy Toil O'er Books Consumed The Midnight Oil?

Some Folks Of Cider Make A Rout And Cider's Well Enough No Doubt When Better Liquors Fail; But Wine, That's Richer, Better Still, Ev'n Wine Itself (deny't Who Will) Must Yield To Nappy Ale

Whoever Heard A Man Of Fortune In England Talk Of The Necessaries Of Life? . . . Whether We Can Afford It Or No, We Must Have Superfluities.

Here Shock, The Pride Of All His Kind, Is Laid, Who Fawned Like Man, But Ne'er Like Man Betrayed.

A Woman's Friendship Ever Ends In Love.

[gulliver Was Soon Being Read] "from The Cabinet Council To The Nursery".

I Hate The Man Who Builds His Name On Ruins Of Another's Fame. Thus Prudes, By Characters O'erthrown, Imagine That They Raise Their Own. Thus Scribblers, Covetous Of Praise, Think Slander Can Transplant The Bays.

Thus Shadow Owes Its Birth To Light.

Light And Shadow

Fair Is The Marigold, For Pottage Meet.

In Beauty Faults Conspicuous Grow; The Smallest Speck Is Seen On Snow.

To Cheat A Man Isnothing; But The Womanmust Have Fine Parts Indeed Who Cheats A Woman!

How Happy Could I Be With Either, Were T'other Dear Charmer Away!

Music Might Tame And Civilize Wild Beasts, But 'tis Evident It Never Yet Could Tame And Civilize Musicians.

I Never, With Important Air, In Conversation Overbear. . . . . My Tongue Within My Lips I Rein; For Who Talks Much Must Talk In Vain.

Exercise Thy Lasting Youth Defends.

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