Jonathan Swift Quotes
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This made me reflect, how vain an attempt it is for a man to endeavor to do himself honor among those who are out of all degree of equality or comparison with him.
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Live every day as your last, because one of these days, it will be.
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There is nothing constant in this world but inconsistency.
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By the laws of God, of nature, of nations, and of your country you are and ought to be as free a people as your brethren in England.
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A forward critic often dupes us With sham quotations peri hupsos, And if we have not read Longinus, Will magisterially outshine us. Then, lest with Greek he over-run ye, Procure the book for love or money, Translated from Boileau's translation, And quote quotation on quotation.
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The first springs of great events, like those of great rivers, are often mean and little.
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Let a man be ne'er so wise, he may be caught with sober lies.
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I used to wonder how a man of birth and spirit could endure to be wholly insignificant and obscure in a foreign country, when he might live with lustre in his own.
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When we desire or solicit anything, our minds run wholly on the good side or circumstances of it; when it is obtained, our minds run wholly on the bad ones.
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One enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can do good.
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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?
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If a man will observe as he walks the streets, I believe he will find the merriest countenances in mourning coaches.
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Whoe'er excels in what we prize, Appears a hero in our eyes; Each girl, when pleased with what is taught, Will have the teacher in her thought. . . . . A blockhead with melodious voice, In boarding-schools may have his choice.
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This Day, whate'er the Fates decree; Shall still be kept with Joy by me: This Day then, let us not be told, That you are sick, and I grown old
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A nice man is a man of nasty ideas.
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Neither are any wars so furious and bloody, or of so long continuance as those occasioned by difference in opinion, especially if it be in things indifferent.
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I'm as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth.
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Men of wit, learning and virtue might strike out every offensive or unbecoming passage from plays.
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Bread is the staff of life.
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Nothing more unqualified the man to act with prudence than a misfortune that is attended with shame and guilt.
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Books, like men their authors, have no more than one wayofcoming intothe world, but there areten thousand to go out of it, and return no more.
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Under this window in stormy weather I marry this man and woman together; Let none but Him who rules the thunder Put this man and woman asunder.
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A lie is an excuse guarded.
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Men of great parts are often unfortunate in the management of public business, because they are apt to go out of the common road by the quickness of their imagination.