Jonathan Swift Quotes
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Books, the children of the brain.
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Let a man be ne'er so wise, he may be caught with sober lies.
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Flattery is the worst and falsest way of showing our esteem.
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I have now lost my barrier between me and death; God grant I may live to be as well prepared for it, as I confidently believe her to have been! If the way to Heaven be through piety, truth, justice and charity, she is there.
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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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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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Once kick the world, and the world and you will live together at a reasonably good understanding.
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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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It is pleasant to observe how free the present age is in laying taxes on the next. "Future ages shall talk of this; they shall be famous to all posterity;" whereas their time and thoughts will be taken up about present things, as ours are now.
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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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A lie is an excuse guarded.
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Would a writer know how to behave himself with relation td posterity? Let him consider in old books what he finds that he is glad to know, and what omissions he most laments.
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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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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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The most ignorant person, at a reasonable charge, and with a little bodily labour, might write books in philosophy, poetry, politics, laws, mathematics, and theology, without the least assistance from genius or study.
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Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation, as it is generally in books the worst sort of reading.
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An atheist has got one point beyond the devil.
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I'm as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth.
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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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When we are old, our friends find it difficult to please us, and are less concerned whether we be pleased or not.
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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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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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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.