Jonathan Swift Quotes
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Praise is the daughter of present power.
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All panegyrics are mingled with an infusion of poppy.
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Many a truth is told in jest.
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An English tongue, if refined to a certain standard, might perhaps be fixed forever.
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Physicians ought not to give their judgment of religion, for the same reason that butchers are not admitted to be jurors upon life and death.
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Satire, being levelled at all, is never resented for an offence by any.
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No wise man ever wished to be younger.
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Brisk talkers are usually slow thinkers. There is, indeed, no wild beast more to be dreaded than a communicative man having nothing to communicate. If you are civil to the voluble they will abuse your patience; if brusque, your character.
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Then, rising with Aurora's light, The Muse invoked, sit down to write; Blot out, correct, insert, refine, Enlarge, diminish, interline.
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A true critic, in the perusal of a book, is like a dog at a feast, whose thoughts and stomach are wholly set upon what the guests fling away, and consequently is apt to snarl most when there are the fewest bones.
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This is every cook's opinion - no savory dish without an onion, but lest your kissing should be spoiled your onions must be fully boiled.
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Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruptions.
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Walls have tongues, and hedges ears.
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He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put into vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw, inclement summers.
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Bachelor's fare: bread and cheese, and kisses.
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One principal object of good-breeding is to suit our behaviour to the three several degrees of men, our superiors, our equals, and those below us.
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An idle reason lessens the weight of the good ones you gave before.
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Quotations are best brought in to confirm some opinion controverted.
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No man of honor, as the word is usually understood, did ever pretend that his honor obliged him to be chaste or temperate, to pay his creditors, to be useful to his country, to do good to mankind, to endeavor to be wise or learned, to regard his word, his promise, or his oath.
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Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.
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Blot out, correct, insert, refine, enlarge, diminish, interline. Be mindful, when invention fails. To scratch your head and bite your nails.
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My hunger serves me instead of a clock.
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A chuck under the chin is worth two kisses.
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Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.