Jonathan Swift Quotes
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Surely mortal man is a broomstick!
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She watches him as a cat would watch a mouse.
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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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"Lawyers Are": Those whose interests and abilities lie in perverting, confounding and eluding the law.
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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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Some dire misfortune to portend, no enemy can match a friend.
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There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.
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The sight of you is good for sore eyes.
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A pleasant companion is as good as a coach.
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A stander-by may sometimes, perhaps, see more of the game than he that plays it.
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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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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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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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Books, the children of the brain.
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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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Once kick the world, and the world and you will live together at a reasonably good understanding.
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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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I love white Portugal wine better than claret, champagne, or burgundy. I have a sad vulgar appetite.
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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 bulk of mankind is as well equipped for flying as thinking.
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The first springs of great events, like those of great rivers, are often mean and little.
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Flattery is the worst and falsest way of showing our esteem.
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Live every day as your last, because one of these days, it will be.