Jonathan Swift Quotes
-
Those dreams that on the silent night intrude, and with false flitting shapes our minds delude ... are mere productions of the brain. And fools consult interpreters in vain.
-
Fine words! I wonder where you stole them.
-
So endless and exorbitant are the desires of men that they will grasp at all, and can form no scheme of perfect happiness with less.
-
Come hither, all ye empty things, Ye bubbles rais'd by breath of Kings; Who float upon the tide of state, Come hither, and behold your fate. Let pride be taught by this rebuke, How very mean a thing's a Duke; From all his ill-got honours flung, Turn'd to that dirt from whence he sprung.
-
That was excellently observed’, say I, when I read a passage in an author, where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, there I pronounce him to be mistaken.
-
Punning is an art of harmonious jingling upon words, which, passing in at the ears, excites a titillary motion in those parts; and this, being conveyed by the animal spirits into the muscles of the face, raises the cockles of the heart.
-
There are certain common privileges of a writer, the benefit whereof, I hope, there will be no reason to doubt; particularly, that where I am not understood, it shall be concluded, that something very useful and profound is couched underneath; and again, that whatever word or sentence is printed in a different character, shall be judged to contain something extraordinary either or wit of sublime.
-
Strange an astrologer should die, without one wonder in the sky.
-
Hail fellow, well met.
-
Had Windham possessed discretion in debate, or Sheridan in conduct, they might have ruled their age.
-
A Child will make two Dishes at an Entertainment for Friends; and when the Family dines alone, the fore or hind Quarter will makea reasonable Dish; and seasoned with a little Pepper or Salt, will be very good Boiled on the fourth Day, especially in Winter.
-
Men always grow vicious before they become unbelievers.
-
With a whirl of thought oppressed I sink from reverie to rest. An horrid vision seized my head, I saw the graves give up their dead.
-
Although the devil be the father of lies, he seems, like other great inventors, to have lost much of his reputation by the continual improvements that have been made upon him.
-
Silks, velvets, calicoes, and the whole lexicon of female fopperies.
-
Dignity, high station, or great riches, are in some sort necessary to old men, in order to keep the younger at a distance, who are otherwise too apt to insult them upon the score of their age.
-
In all assemblies, though you wedge them ever so close, we may observe this peculiar property, that over their heads there is room enough; but how to reach it is the difficult point. To this end the philosopher's way in all ages has been by erecting certain edifices in the air.
-
Come, agree, the law's costly.
-
Wise people are never less alone than when they are alone.
-
Usually speaking, the worst-bred person in company is a young traveller just returned from abroad.
-
Whence proceeds this weight we lay On what detracting people say? Their utmost malice cannot make Your head, or tooth, or finger ache; Nor spoil your shapes, distort your face, Or put one feature out of place.
-
If you were not reasoned into your beliefs, you cannot be reasoned out of them.
-
How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
-
I never knew any man cured of inattention.