Jonathan Swift Quotes

Story-telling is subject to two unavoidable defects,--frequent repetition and being soon exhausted; so that, whoever values this gift in himself, has need of a good memory, and ought frequently to shift his company.

Jonathan Swift

• Values
• Gift
• Storytelling
• Repetition
• Defects

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Quotes to Explore

• What brought the British to the Gambia in the first place - which was bigger than it is now - was trade in ivory because the Gambia had a lot of elephants. They wiped out all the elephants and ended up selling Africans.

  

  Yahya Jammeh
  • Up
  • Now
  • Bigger

• This life and this job and this position that I'm put in, it forces you to grow up quick. I definitely got dropped in the deep end.

  

  Flume
  • Life
  • Up
  • Job

• I grew up with that completely fictive idea of motherhood, where the mother never strayed from the kitchen. All the women in my books are very afraid that if they do anything with their minds they won't be complete women. I don't think my daughters' generation has that feeling.

  

  A. S. Byatt
  • Up
  • Women
  • Mother

• When I first started out as a young journalist, I know that on at least two occasions, when I walked into a newsroom, I knew I was replacing the black person in that job.

  

  Tamron Hall
  • Job
  • Black
  • Know

• Nobody else is stupid enough to get themselves into the straits that I get into.

  

  Bear Grylls
  • Stupid
  • Enough
  • Nobody

• I feel empathy for people who are trapped in a prison of self-consciousness in an uncomfortable way. We can be free, but we're so held back. So perhaps that's why I feel a duty to make my work. I feel liberated when I'm doing it, and I want other people to feel liberated through it.

  

  Bat for Lashes
  • People
  • Work
  • Why

• I might be deceiving myself but I do not think that I do have an inordinate fear of death.

  

  A. N. Wilson
  • Death
  • Fear
  • Myself

• Starring in a science-fiction film doesn't mean you have to act science fiction.

  

  Harrison Ford
  • Science
  • Mean
  • Act

• One of the strengths of Adani is that, because we are controlling mines, ships, ports and logistics, we are the cheapest solution provider for end users.

  

  Gautam Adani
  • End
  • Solution
  • Ships

• I have never written for an audience. On the other hand I do not write merely to please myself.

  

  Patrick O'Brian
  • Hand
  • Myself
  • Write

• The Premier League is very difficult football and very different to when you play in Europe, but the player has to have experience to adapt, and this is the key point.

  

  Fernando Torres
  • Different
  • Experience
  • Football

• We have invented a new human right here - the right to return home after a war.

  

  Paddy Ashdown
  • Home
  • War
  • New

• Americans are cool; if you show just a chink of vulnerability, they respond so much. They'll pat you on the arm and say, 'Hey kid, you're all right.' Brits will respond but they are much more cynical.

  

  Bear Grylls
  • You
  • Cool
  • Vulnerability

• Being veterans of the struggle to push back against fundamentalist Christians, American liberals are well acquainted with the pitfalls of the neoconservative flirtation with the religious-right.

  

  Maajid Nawaz
  • American
  • Religious
  • Struggle

• I usually meditate twice a day: Transcendental Meditation.

  

  Vanessa Bayer
  • Day
  • Meditation
  • Twice

• To be a writer, you must be a reader, yet as many as 30 per cent of my writing students were not readers.

  

  Garry Disher
  • Writing
  • You
  • Students

• Basically, I'm a free spirit. I'm kind of an Everywoman.

  

  Pamela Anderson
  • Free
  • Kind
  • Free Spirit

• You know those award shows. The cliche is that it's an honor just to be nominated, but that happens to be true. Whoever wins it in the end, I don't know, sometimes it feels arbitrary. Sometimes it feels like it's deserving.

  

  Hank Azaria
  • True
  • End
  • Honor

• A lawyer from Africa wants to marry Malia Obama in exchange for goats, sheep, and cows. In response, President Obama said, 'Don't be ridiculous. My daughter isn't marrying a lawyer.'

  

  Conan O'Brien
  • Daughter
  • Lawyer
  • Africa

• The nice thing about anger is that, as an emotion, it's strong enough to unplug me from the comedian's mind for a minute and just be a frustrated member of the citizenry.

  

  Seth Meyers
  • Mind
  • Emotion
  • Anger

• He's a big offensive threat, he has great vision, and he plays with his head up. He's got that great, quick wrist shot that you can't teach. He's got a good power-play mind-set. ... We just have to keep playing him.

  

  Bob Hartley
  • Vision
  • Teach
  • Playing

• The thing that makes us know that this "latter rain" that is flooding the world with the glory of God is of the Lord, is because the devil is not in such business.

  

  William J. Seymour
  • World
  • Rain
  • Latter

• Among the defects of the bill [Lord Derby's] which are numerous, one provision is conspicuous by its presence and another by its absence.

  

  Lord John Russell
  • Lord
  • Absence
  • Bills

• Story-telling is subject to two unavoidable defects,--frequent repetition and being soon exhausted; so that, whoever values this gift in himself, has need of a good memory, and ought frequently to shift his company.

  

  Jonathan Swift
  • Values
  • Gift
  • Storytelling