Jonathan Swift Quotes
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One enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can do good.
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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.
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Complaint is the largest tribute heaven receives and the sincerest part of our devotion.
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In all I wish, how happy should I be, Thou grand Deluder, were it not for thee? So weak thou art that fools thy power despise; And yet so strong, thou triumph'st o'er the wise.
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How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
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Pray steal me not, I'm Mrs. Dingley's, Whose heart in this four-footed thing lies.
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It is likewise to be observed that this society hath a peculiar chant and jargon of their own, that no other mortal can understand, and wherein all their laws are written, which they take special care to multiply.
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You must take the will for the deed.
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Ever eating, never cloying, All-devouring, all-destroying Never finding full repast, Till I eat the world at last.
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I'll give you leave to call me anything, if you don't call me spade.
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Bread is the staff of life.
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When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
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All Pretences of foretelling by Astrology, are Deceits; for this manifest Reason, because the Wise and Learned, who can only judge whether there be any Truth in this Science, do all unanimously agree to laugh at and despise it; and none but the poor ignorant Vulgar give it any Credit.
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Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance.
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She watches him as a cat would watch a mouse.
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We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
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For in that universal call, Few bankers will to heaven be mounters; They'll cry, "Ye shops, upon us fall! Conceal and cover us, ye counters! When other hands the scales shall hold, And they, in men's and angels' sight Produced with all their bills and gold, 'Weigh'd in the balance and found light!'
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It often happens that, if a lie be believed only for an hour, it has done its work, and there is no further occasion for it.
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There is no talent so useful toward rising in the world, or which puts men more out of the reach of fortune, than that quality generally possessed by the dullest sort of men, and in common speech called discretion; a species of lower prudence, by the assistance of which, people of the meanest intellectuals, without any other qualification, pass through the world in great tranquillity, and with universal good treatment, neither giving nor taking offence.
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Ay, do despise me, I'm the prouder for it; I like to be despised.
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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.
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The first springs of great events, like those of great rivers, are often mean and little.
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Argument is the worst sort of conversation.
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Patience alleviates, as impatience augments, pain; thus persons of strong will suffer less than those who give way to irritation.