Jonathan Swift Quotes
-
Few are qualified to shine in company, but it is in most men's power to be agreeable.
-
In all I wish, how happy should I be, Thou grand Deluder, were it not for thee? So weak thou art that fools thy power despise; And yet so strong, thou triumph'st o'er the wise.
-
Don't set your wit against a child.
-
Though fear should lend him pinions like the wind, yet swifter fate will seize him from behind.
-
Positiveness is a good quality for preachers and speakers because, whoever shares his thoughts with the public will convince them as he himself appears convinced.
-
The bulk of mankind is as well equipped for flying as thinking.
-
From not the gravest of Divines, Accept for once some serious Lines.
-
For in that universal call, Few bankers will to heaven be mounters; They'll cry, "Ye shops, upon us fall! Conceal and cover us, ye counters! When other hands the scales shall hold, And they, in men's and angels' sight Produced with all their bills and gold, 'Weigh'd in the balance and found light!'
-
When dunces are satiric, I take it for a panegyric.
-
Surely mortal man is a broomstick!
-
And he gave it for his opinion, "that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.
-
One enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can do good.
-
It is likewise to be observed that this society hath a peculiar chant and jargon of their own, that no other mortal can understand, and wherein all their laws are written, which they take special care to multiply.
-
Love why do we one passion call, When 'tis a compound of them all? Where hot and cold, where sharp and sweet, In all their equipages meet; Where pleasures mix'd with pains appear, Sorrow with joy, and hope with fear.
-
A lie is an excuse guarded.
-
I'm as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth.
-
Conversation is but carving! Give no more to every guest Than he's able to digest.
-
There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.
-
A nice man is a man of nasty ideas.
-
When we desire or solicit anything, our minds run wholly on the good side or circumstances of it; when it is obtained, our minds run wholly on the bad ones.
-
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.
-
This Day, whate'er the Fates decree; Shall still be kept with Joy by me: This Day then, let us not be told, That you are sick, and I grown old
-
There seems to be no part of knowledge in fewer hands than that of discerning when to have done.
-
An atheist has got one point beyond the devil.