Famous Jonathan Swift Quotations

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"The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes."
by Jonathan Swift
"Vanity is a mark of humility rather than of pride."
by Jonathan Swift
"Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent."
by Jonathan Swift
"No wise man ever wished to be younger."
by Jonathan Swift
"As blushing will sometimes make a whore pass for a virtuous woman, so modesty may make a fool seem a man of sense."
by Jonathan Swift
"A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart."
by Jonathan Swift
"A wise man is never less alone than when he is alone"
by Jonathan Swift
"Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same posture with creeping."
by Jonathan Swift
"Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices so climbing is performed in the same posture with creeping."
by Jonathan Swift
"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"
by Jonathan Swift
"Argument is the worst sort of conversation."
by Jonathan Swift
"As love without esteem is capricious and volatile; esteem without love is languid and cold."
by Jonathan Swift
"Faith he must make his stories shorter Or change his comrades once a quarter."
by Jonathan Swift
"Fine words! I wonder where you stole them."
by Jonathan Swift
"Fine words! I wonder where you stole them"
by Jonathan Swift
"Happiness is the perpetual possession of being well deceived."
by Jonathan Swift
"He was a bold man that first ate an oyster."
by Jonathan Swift
"How is it possible to expect mankind to take advice when they will not so much as take warning"
by Jonathan Swift
"I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled, and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout."
by Jonathan Swift
"I row after health like a waterman..."
by Jonathan Swift
"I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing."
by Jonathan Swift
"Interest is the spur of the people, but glory that of great souls. Invention is the talent of youth, and judgment of age."
by Jonathan Swift
"It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of."
by Jonathan Swift
"It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of, and in your nature, there lies hidden rich mines of thought and purpose awaiting your development"
by Jonathan Swift
"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."
by Jonathan Swift
"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into."
by Jonathan Swift
"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"
by Jonathan Swift
"Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through"
by Jonathan Swift
"May you live every day of your life."
by Jonathan Swift
"May you live all the days of your life."
by Jonathan Swift
"No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from age and experience."
by Jonathan Swift
"Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want."
by Jonathan Swift
"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."
by Jonathan Swift
"Positiveness is a good quality for preachers and speakers because, whoever shares his thoughts with the public will convince them as he himself appears convinced."
by Jonathan Swift
"Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruptions."
by Jonathan Swift
"She wears her clothes as if they were thrown on with a pitchfork."
by Jonathan Swift
"Some people take more care to hide their wisdom than their folly."
by Jonathan Swift
"Strange an astrologer should die, without one wonder in the sky"
by Jonathan Swift
"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."
by Jonathan Swift
"The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance and never to keep his work."
by Jonathan Swift
"The want of belief is a defect that ought to be concealed when it cannot be overcome."
by Jonathan Swift
"The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as is the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at"
by Jonathan Swift
"There is nothing in this world constant, but inconsistancy."
by Jonathan Swift
"There were many times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails."
by Jonathan Swift
"We are so fond on one another because our ailments are the same."
by Jonathan Swift
"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love, one another."
by Jonathan Swift
"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love on another."
by Jonathan Swift
"We have enough religion to hate each other, but not enough to love each other."
by Jonathan Swift
"When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him."
by Jonathan Swift
"When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
by Jonathan Swift
"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
by Jonathan Swift
"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him"
by Jonathan Swift
"When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in confederacy against him."
by Jonathan Swift
"The latter part of a wise person's life is occupied with curing the follies, prejudices and false opinions they contracted earlier."
by Jonathan Swift
"Ambition often puts Men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same position with creeping."
by Jonathan Swift
"Better belly burst than good liquor be lost."
by Jonathan Swift
"In church your grandsire cut his throat; to do the job too long he tarried: he should have had my hearty vote to cut his throat before he married."
by Jonathan Swift
"I wont quarrel with my bread and butter."
by Jonathan Swift
"I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child, well nursed, is at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout."
by Jonathan Swift
"Coffee makes us severe, and grave, and philosophical."
by Jonathan Swift
"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."
by Jonathan Swift
"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."
by Jonathan Swift
"The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman."
by Jonathan Swift
"She wears her clothes as if they were thrown on with a pitch folk."
by Jonathan Swift
"Happiness is a perpetual possession of being well deceived."
by Jonathan Swift
"What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not do we are told expressly."
by Jonathan Swift
"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?"
by Jonathan Swift
"It is a maxim among these lawyers, that whatever hath been done before, may legally be done again: and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and the general reason of mankind."
by Jonathan Swift
"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."
by Jonathan Swift
"A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart."
by Jonathan Swift
"There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake."
by Jonathan Swift
"Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance."
by Jonathan Swift
"It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom."
by Jonathan Swift
"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?"
by Jonathan Swift
"I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular, but some degree of persecution."
by Jonathan Swift
"Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind reception it meets with in the world, and that so very few are offended with it."
by Jonathan Swift
"Nor do they trust their tongue alone, but speak a language of their own; can read a nod, a shrug, a look, far better than a printed book; convey a libel in a frown, and wink a reputation down."
by Jonathan Swift
"I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed."
by Jonathan Swift
"It is as hard to satirize well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguished virtues."
by Jonathan Swift
"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."
by Jonathan Swift
"Come hither, all ye empty things, Ye bubbles rais'd by breath of Kings;..."
by Jonathan Swift
"In the school of political projectors, I was but ill entertained, the professors appearing, in my judgment, wholly out of their senses; which ..."
by Jonathan Swift
"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 ..."
by Jonathan Swift
"Triumphant Tories, and desponding Whigs, Forget their feuds, and join to save their wigs."
by Jonathan Swift


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