Jonathan Swift Quotes
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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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It is a miserable thing to live in suspense; it is the life of the spider.
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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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And surely one of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid.
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For the rest, whatever we have got has been by infinite labor, and search, and ranging through every corner of nature; the difference is that instead of dirt and poison, we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax, thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.
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Surely mortal man is a broomstick!
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A pleasant companion is as good as a coach.
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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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The bulk of mankind is as well equipped for flying as thinking.
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The sight of you is good for sore eyes.
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Live every day as your last, because one of these days, it will be.
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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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Conversation is but carving! Give no more to every guest Than he's able to digest.
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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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Few are qualified to shine in company, but it is in most men's power to be agreeable.
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Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old.
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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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A nice man is a man of nasty ideas.
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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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Once kick the world, and the world and you will live together at a reasonably good understanding.
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The most ignorant person, at a reasonable charge, and with a little bodily labour, might write books in philosophy, poetry, politics, laws, mathematics, and theology, without the least assistance from genius or study.
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I used to wonder how a man of birth and spirit could endure to be wholly insignificant and obscure in a foreign country, when he might live with lustre in his own.
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The first springs of great events, like those of great rivers, are often mean and little.
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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.