Jonathan Swift famous quotes

Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Inspirational #Leadership #Teacher

We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Love #Hate #Religion

When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Funny #Education #Truth

May you live all the days of your life.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Inspirational #Birthday #Good Life

That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Philosophy #Believe #Fall

You should never be ashamed to admit you have been wrong. It only proves you are wiser today than yesterday
-- Jonathan Swift

#Writing #Yesterday #Rejection

The proper words in the proper places are the true definition of style.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Style #Literature #Definitions

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Government #Slavery #Definitions

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.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Country #Vegetables #Two

Promises and pie-crust are made to be broken.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Broken Heart #Food #Pie

No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from age and experience.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Funny #Life #Time

Words are but wind; and learning is nothing but words; ergo, learning is nothing but wind.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Wind #Understanding

Better belly burst than good liquor be lost.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Alcohol #Liquor #Lost

There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Mistake #Literature

Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest people uneasy is the best bred in the room.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Art #People #Rooms

Ale is meat, drink and cloth; it will make a cat speak and a wise man dumb.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Wise #Cat #Men

Argument is the worst sort of conversation.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Opinion #Argument #Conversation

Coffee makes us severe, and grave and philosophical.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Coffee #Philosophical #Graves

There is nothing in this world constant, but inconstancy.
-- Jonathan Swift

#World #This World #Constant

I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Morning #Greatness #Men

Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Inspirational #Law #Liberty

My nose itched, and I knew I should drink wine or kiss a fool.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Wine #Kissing #Fool

I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular, but some degree of persecution.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Country #Common Sense #Religion

Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Littles #Philosopher #Comparison

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.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Quality #Share #Preacher

A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Inspirational #Success #Wise

It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have been designed by providence as an evil to mankind.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Death #Evil #Dying

Every dog must have his day.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Success #Dog #Bad Day

I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Men #Evil #Wicked

Books, the children of the brain.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Inspirational #Children #Book

He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Food #Men #Oysters

Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Men #Long #Wish

I'm as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Teeth #Littles #Tongue

There is nothing constant in this world but inconsistency.
-- Jonathan Swift

#World #This World #Inconsistency

The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Time #Dating #Romance

Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Blessed #Blessing #Power

I have always a sacred veneration for anyone I observe to be a little out of repair in his person, as supposing him either a poet or a philosopher.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Littles #Sacred #Philosopher

The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Inspirational #Humorous #Health

A tavern is a place where madness is sold by the bottle.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Drinking #Taverns #Bottles

Complaint is the largest tribute heaven receives and the sincerest part of our devotion.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Prayer #Heaven #Devotion

Although the devil be the father of lies, he seems, like other great inventors, to have lost much of his reputation by the continual improvements that have been made upon him.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Father #Lying #Devil

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…
-- Jonathan Swift

#Wish #Conversation #Unsaid

It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Acceptance #Men #Religion

The various opinions of philosophers have scattered through the world as many plagues of the mind as Pandora's box did those of the body; only with this difference, that they have not left hope at the bottom.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Differences #Mind #World

A lie is an excuse guarded
-- Jonathan Swift

#Lying #Excuse #Guarded

I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities, and all my love is toward individuals: for instance, I hate the tribe of lawyers, but I love Counsellor Such-a-one, and Judge Such-a-one: so with physicians—I will not speak of my own trade—soldiers, English, Scotch, French, and the rest. But principally I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth. This is the system upon which I have governed myself many years, but do not tell...
-- Jonathan Swift

#Hate #Love Is #Men

Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Friendship #Family #Literature

No wise man ever wished to be younger.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Birthday #Wise #Time

Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Strength #Men #Knowing

Don't set your wit against a child.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Education #Teacher #Children

The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Money #Cutting #Feet

For to enter the palace of learning at the great gate requires an expense of time and forms, therefore men of much haste and little ceremony are content to get in by the back-door
-- Jonathan Swift

#Inspirational #Men #Doors

When I am reading a book, whether wise or silly, it seems to me to be alive and talking to me.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Wise #Silly #Book

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.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Men #Honor #Degrees

Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Men #Literature #Pay

Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Judging #Age #Literature

If a lump of soot falls into the soup and you cannot conveniently get it out, stir it well in and it will give the soup a French taste.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Fall #Giving #Cooking

It is a maxim among these lawyers, that whatever hath been done before, may legally be done again: and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and the general reason of mankind.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Justice #Decision #Special

Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Pride #Proud #Poverty

It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Men #Gold #Veins

Conscience signifies that knowledge which a man hath of his own thoughts and actions; and because, if a man judgeth fairly of his actions by comparing them with the law of God, his mind will approve or condemn him; this knowledge or conscience may be both an accuser and a judge.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Men #Law #Judging

It is very unfair in any writer to employ ignorance and malice together, because it gives his answerer double work.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Ignorance #Giving #Together

It is an uncontrolled truth, that no man ever made an ill figure who understood his own talents, nor a good one who mistook them.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Men #Talent #Figures

Cruel people are ever cowards in emergency.
-- Jonathan Swift

#People #Coward #Emergencies

A pleasant companion is as good as a coach.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Companion #Coaches #Pleasant

Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe, how much it altered her person for the worse.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Believe #Lasts #Saws

Hobbes clearly proves, that every creature Lives in a state of war by nature.
-- Jonathan Swift

#War #Hobbes #States

Such a man, truly wise, creams off Nature leaving the sour and the dregs for philosophy and reason to lap up.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Wise #Philosophy #Men

Walls have tongues, and hedges ears.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Wall #Ears #Tongue

A chuck under the chin is worth two kisses.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Kissing #Two #Certainty

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.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Air #Age #Peculiar

Sweeping from butcher's stalls, dung, guts, and blood, Drown'd puppies, stinking sprats, all drench'd in mud, Dead cats, and turnip-tops, come tumbling down the flood.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Rain #Cat #Blood

There are but three ways for a man to revenge himself of the censure of the world,--to despise it, to return the like, or to endeavor to live so as to avoid it; the first of these is usually pretended, the last is almost impossible, the universal practice is for the second.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Revenge #Men #Practice

Arbitrary power is but the first natural step from anarchy, or the savage life.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Savages #Arbitrary #Anarchy

The example alone of a vicious prince will corrupt an age; but that of a good one will not reform it.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Kings #Age #Example

He that calls a man ungrateful sums up all the veil that a man can be guilty of.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Men #Ungrateful #Veils

It is the talent of human nature to run from one extreme to another.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Running #Talent #Human Nature

One principal object of good-breeding is to suit our behaviour to the three several degrees of men, our superiors, our equals, and those below us.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Men #Degrees #Three

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.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Men #Age #Genius

Every age might perhaps produce one or two geniuses, if they were not sunk under the censure and obloquy of plodding, servile, imitating pedants.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Two #Age #Genius

Nothing is so great an instance of ill-manners as flattery.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Flattery #Manners #Ill

Let a man be ne'er so wise, he may be caught with sober lies.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Wise #Lying #Men

A maxim in law has more weight in the world than an article of faith.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Faith #Law #World

That incessant envy wherewith the common rate of mankind pursues all superior natures to their own.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Envy #Common #Incessant

Oh how our neighbour lifts his nose, To tell what every schoolboy knows.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Education #Noses #Neighbour

We have an intuitive sense of our duty.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Duty

The axe of intemperance has lopped off his green boughs and left him a withered trunk.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Green #Trunks #Intemperance

Men of wit, learning and virtue might strike out every offensive or unbecoming passage from plays.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Drama #Men #Play

There seems to be no part of knowledge in fewer hands than that of discerning when to have done.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Hands #Done #Discernment

A fig for your bill of fare; show me your bill of company.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Bills #Figs #Show Me

The system of morality to be gathered from the ancient sages falls very short of that delivered in the gospel.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Fall #Sage #Morality

Desponding Phyllis was endu'd With ev'ry Talent of a Prude, She trembled when a Man drew near; Salute her, and she turn'd her Ear: If o'er against her you were plac'd She durst not look above your Waist
-- Jonathan Swift

#Men #Prudes #Looks

Life is a tragedy wherein we sit as spectators for a while and then act our part in it.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Life #Tragedy #Life Is

Few are qualified to shine in company, but it is in most men's power to be agreeable.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Men #Shining #Good Nature

A nice man is a man of nasty ideas.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Nice #Men #Ideas

If the men of wit and genius would resolve never to complain in their works of critics and detractors, the next age would not know that they ever had any.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Men #Criticism #Age

It is as hard to satirize well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguished virtues.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Sarcasm #Men #Vices

A footman may swear; but he cannot swear like a lord. He can swear as often: but can he swear with equal delicacy, propriety, and judgment?
-- Jonathan Swift

#Delicacy #May #Judgment

Two friendships in two breasts requires The same aversions and desires.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Friendship #Two #Feelings

Apollo was held the god of physic and sender of disease. Both were originally the same trade, and still continue.
-- Jonathan Swift

#Apollo #Disease #Trade