Jonathan Swift Quotes
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Complaint is the largest tribute heaven receives and the sincerest part of our devotion.
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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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We have an intuitive sense of our duty.
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Kitchen Physic is the best Physic.
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Some men, under the notion of weeding out prejudice, eradicate virtue, honesty and religion.
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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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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.
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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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Let a man be never so wise, he may be caught with sober lies.
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When I am reading a book, whether wise or silly, it seems to me to be alive and talking to me.
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A tavern is a place where madness is sold by the bottle.
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Bread is the staff of life.
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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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Hoever 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.
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Ay, do despise me, I'm the prouder for it; I like to be despised.
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My nose itched, and I knew I should drink wine or kiss a fool.
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My father had a small Estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the Third of five Sons.
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Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.
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Every day is an opportunity to make a new happy ending. May you live all the days of your life.
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Words are but wind; and learning is nothing but words; ergo, learning is nothing but wind.
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It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end.
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War: that mad game the world so loves to play.
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I always love to begin a journey on Sundays, because I shall have the prayers of the church to preserve all that travel by land, or water.
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Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want.