Love Quote by John Gay

Cruelty is often sold as strength, but John Gay flips the mask: the real bully is frightened. In one compact line, he turns cowardice from a private defect into a public hazard. “Cowards are cruel” isn’t a moral scold so much as a psychological diagnosis. The coward, terrified of being exposed, reaches for domination as cover. Violence becomes a costume for insecurity; harshness is the quickest way to look unafraid.

Then Gay pivots to a more surprising claim: “the brave love mercy and delight to save.” Bravery, in this frame, isn’t reckless aggression; it’s the confidence to restrain yourself. Mercy becomes an active pleasure, not a reluctant pardon. That word “delight” matters. It implies bravery has an emotional surplus: when you aren’t trapped in self-protection, you can afford empathy, even joy, in sparing someone else. The brave person doesn’t need to prove power; they can use it judiciously, even theatrically, as rescue.

Context sharpens the point. Writing in early 18th-century Britain, Gay lived amid party rancor, public spectacle, and a culture where honor and “manliness” were often performed through ridicule or punishment. His satirical milieu prized exposing hypocrisy: the swaggering moralist, the punitive authority, the chest-thumping patriot. The line reads like a neat pin pushed into that inflated pose. It’s also a political warning: regimes and leaders that rule by cruelty may be advertising not their strength, but their fear.