Quotes by Jonathan Swift
The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.
And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.
As love without esteem is capricious and volatile; esteem without love is languid and cold.
Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance.
Happiness is a perpetual possession of being well deceived.
I said there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are as slaves.
Lord! I wonder what fool it was who invented kissing.
Rebukes are easy from our betters, From men of quality and letters; But when low dunces will affront, What man alive can stand the brunt?
It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have been designed by Providence as an evil to mankind.
It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into
For the rest, Whatever we have got has been by infinite labor, and search, and ranging through every corner of nature; the difference is that instead of dirt and poison, we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax, thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.
The latter part of a man's life is taken up in curing the follies, prejudices, and false opinions he had contracted in the former.
It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.
The want of belief is a defect that ought to be concealed when it cannot be overcome.
There is nothing in this world constant, but inconsistancy.
A footman may swear; but he cannot swear like a lord. He can swear as often: but can he swear with equal delicacy, propriety, and judgment?
Strange an astrologer should die, without one wonder in the sky
It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death should ever have been designed by Providence as an evil to ...
One of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid.
Some people take more care to hide their wisdom than their folly.
The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as is the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at
Triumphant Tories, and desponding Whigs, Forget their feuds, and join to save their wigs.
Come hither, all ye empty things, Ye bubbles rais'd by breath of Kings;...
Whoever wishes to win in this game must have patience and money, since the values are so little constant and the rumors so little founded on truth Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
I row after health like a waterman...
