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Home
Authors
Jonathan Swift
Irish
Writer
About the author
We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Love
#Religion
#Hate
Under this window in stormy weather I marry this man and woman together; Let none but Him who rules the thunder Put this man and woman asunder.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Man
#Weather
#Woman
#Rules
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Genius
Once kick the world, and the world and you will live together at a reasonably good understanding.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Will
#World
#Understanding
Words are but wind; and learning is nothing but words; ergo, learning is nothing but wind.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Words
#Nothing
#Wind
#Learning
Where there are large powers with little ambition... nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#May
#Nature
#Ambition
Where I am not understood, it shall be concluded that something very useful and profound is couched underneath.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Heart
#Man
#Money
Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruptions.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Nothing
#Word
#Politics
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,
Irish
Writer
#Death
#Evil
#Mankind
#Providence
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,
Irish
Writer
#Reason
#May
#Justice
#Decisions
#Lawyers
#Care
#Mankind
#Maxim
Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Youth
#Judgment
#Age
#Talent
#Invention
A lie does not consist in the indirect position of words, but in the desire and intention, by false speaking, to deceive and injure your neighbour.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Words
#Desire
#Lie
#Intention
Interest is the spur of the people, but glory that of great souls. Invention is the talent of youth, and judgment of age.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#People
#Youth
#Judgment
#Age
#Talent
#Interest
#Invention
#Glory
If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a scoundrel.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Heaven
I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Wonder
#First
#Fool
#Kissing
I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Wonder
#Men
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,
Irish
Writer
#Nothing
#Christianity
#Popular
#Country
#Religion
#Nation
#Persecution
I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Man
#Greatness
Human brutes, like other beasts, find snares and poison in the provision of life, and are allured by their appetites to their destruction.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Life
#Destruction
#Poison
He was a fiddler, and consequently a rogue.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Coffee
#London
#Voice
#Mistake
#Folly
#Echo
He was a bold man that first eat an oyster.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Man
#First
Books, the children of the brain.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Children
#Books
Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Public
#Being
#Man
#Tax
#Censure
Don't set your wit against a child.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Wit
Every dog must have his day.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Day
Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Man
#Old
#Wishes
A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying... that he is wiser today than yesterday.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Saying
#Today
#Man
#Wrong
#Yesterday
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,
Irish
Writer
#People
#Art
#Manners
A tavern is a place where madness is sold by the bottle.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Madness
Better belly burst than good liquor be lost.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Liquor
As love without esteem is capricious and volatile; esteem without love is languid and cold.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Love
As blushing will sometimes make a whore pass for a virtuous woman, so modesty may make a fool seem a man of sense.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Will
#May
#Man
#Woman
#Sense
#Fool
#Modesty
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,
Irish
Writer
#Strength
#Men
#Gold
#Weakness
A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Heart
#Money
Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#May
#Laws
#Flies
For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Reason
#Government
#Slavery
Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Power
We are so fond on one another because our ailments are the same.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Art
#Vision
Vanity is a mark of humility rather than of pride.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Pride
#Humility
#Vanity
There were many times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Will
#Mistake
The want of belief is a defect that ought to be concealed when it cannot be overcome.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Want
#Belief
The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Want
#Feet
The proper words in the proper places are the true definition of style.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Words
#Style
The power of fortune is confessed only by the miserable, for the happy impute all their success to prudence or merit.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Success
#Power
#Fortune
#Merit
#Prudence
The latter part of a wise person's life is occupied with curing the follies, prejudices and false opinions they contracted earlier.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Life
#Opinions
The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#World
#Quiet
#Doctors
#Diet
Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Satire
It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Men
#Gold
Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Want
#Nothing
May you live all the days of your life.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Life
#May
Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Men
#Humor
#Folly
Most sorts of diversion in men, children and other animals, are in imitation of fighting.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Children
#Men
#Fighting
#Animals
#Imitation
My nose itched, and I knew I should drink wine or kiss a fool.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Fool
#Kiss
#Wine
No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from age and experience.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Life
#Man
#Experience
#Information
#Age
Promises and pie-crust are made to be broken.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Promises
Nothing is so great an example of bad manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none; If you flatter only one or two, you offend the rest.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Nothing
#Rest
#Example
#Manners
#Company
#Flattery
Principally I hate and detest that animal called man; although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Love
#Man
#Hate
Observation is an old man's memory.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Man
#Old
#Observation
#Memory
Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Nothing
One enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can do good.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Enemy
#Hurt
#Friends
Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Will
#Poor
#Nations
#Pride
#Hunger
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,
Irish
Writer
#Public
#Will
#Quality
#Thoughts
What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not do we are told expressly.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Heaven
No wise man ever wished to be younger.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Man
There is nothing constant in this world but inconsistency.
Jonathan Swift,
Irish
Writer
#Nothing
#World
#Inconsistency