Jonathan Swift Quotes
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There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.
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"Lawyers Are": Those whose interests and abilities lie in perverting, confounding and eluding the law.
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There seems to be no part of knowledge in fewer hands than that of discerning when to have done.
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It is the talent of human nature to run from one extreme to another.
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... the atheists, libertines, despisers of religion ... that is to say all those who usually pass under the name of Free-thinkers.
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Wisdom is a fox who, after long hunting, will at last cost you the pains to dig out; it is a cheese, which, by how much the richer, has the thicker, the homlier, and the coarser coat; and whereof to a judicious palate, the maggots are best. It is a sack posset, wherein the deeper you go, you'll find it the sweeter. Wisdom is a hen, whose cackling we must value and consider, because it is attended with an egg. But lastly, it is a nut, which, unless you choose with judgment, may cost you a tooth, and pay you with nothing but a worm.
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He that calls a man ungrateful sums up all the veil that a man can be guilty of.
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The bulk of mankind is as well equipped for flying as thinking.
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A pleasant companion is as good as a coach.
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Few are qualified to shine in company, but it is in most men's power to be agreeable.
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The sight of you is good for sore eyes.
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Pride, ill nature, and want of sense, are the three great sources of ill manners.
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A stander-by may sometimes, perhaps, see more of the game than he that plays it.
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Books, the children of the brain.
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It is pleasant to observe how free the present age is in laying taxes on the next. "Future ages shall talk of this; they shall be famous to all posterity;" whereas their time and thoughts will be taken up about present things, as ours are now.
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So, naturalists observe, a flea; Hath smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller fleas to bite 'em, And so proceed ad infinitum.
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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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Would a writer know how to behave himself with relation td posterity? Let him consider in old books what he finds that he is glad to know, and what omissions he most laments.
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This made me reflect, how vain an attempt it is for a man to endeavor to do himself honor among those who are out of all degree of equality or comparison with him.
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Conversation is but carving! Give no more to every guest Than he's able to digest.
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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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The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter and a scarcity of words; for whosoever is a master of language, and hath a mind full of ideas, will be apt, in speaking, to hesitate upon the choice of both.
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Surely mortal man is a broomstick!
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Live every day as your last, because one of these days, it will be.