Jonathan Swift Quotes
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Books, the children of the brain.
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Have you not observed that there is a lower kind of discretion and regularity, which seldom fails of raising men to the highest station in the court, the church, and the law?
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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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We are so fond on one another because our ailments are the same.
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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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There never appear more than five or six men of genius in an age, but if they were united the world could not stand before them.
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I love white Portugal wine better than claret, champagne, or burgundy. I have a sad vulgar appetite.
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"Lawyers Are": Those whose interests and abilities lie in perverting, confounding and eluding the law.
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It is in disputes as in armies, where the weaker side sets up false lights, and makes a great noise, to make the enemy believe them more numerous and strong than they really are.
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What religion is he of? Why, he is an Anythingarian.
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Complaint is the largest tribute heaven receives and the sincerest part of our devotion.
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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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Nothing more unqualified the man to act with prudence than a misfortune that is attended with shame and guilt.
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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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Some men, under the notion of weeding out prejudice, eradicate virtue, honesty and religion.
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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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The sight of you is good for sore eyes.
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War: that mad game the world so loves to play.
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Let a man be never so wise, he may be caught with sober lies.
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The first springs of great events, like those of great rivers, are often mean and little.
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Men of wit, learning and virtue might strike out every offensive or unbecoming passage from plays.
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Perverseness is your whole defence.
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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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When a man of genius appears in the world, it is immediately recognized by the fact that all the blockheads join forces against him.