Jonathan Swift Quotes
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It is the first rule in oratory that a man must appear such as he would persuade others to be: and that can be accomplished only by the force of his life.
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Fools are apt to imitate only the defects of their betters.
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Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.
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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.
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Praise is the daughter of present power.
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There are few wild beasts more to be dreaded than a talking man having nothing to say.
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Ale is meat, drink and cloth; it will make a cat speak and a wise man dumb.
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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.
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I row after health like a waterman.
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Just get the right syllable in the proper place.
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This wine should be eaten, it is too good to be drunk.
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The tiny Lilliputians surmise that Gulliver's watch may be his god, because it is that which, he admits, he seldom does anything without consulting.
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Pride, ill nature, and want of sense, are the three great sources of ill manners.
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What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not do we are told expressly.
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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.
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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.
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Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.
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Possession, they say, is eleven points of the law.
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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.
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The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance, and never to keep his word.
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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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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.
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If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a scoundrel.
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I with borrow'd silver shine, What you see is none of mine. First I show you but a quarter, Like the bow that guards the Tartar: Then the half, and then the whole, Ever dancing round the pole.