Men Quotes by Jonathan Swift

A nice man is a man of nasty ideas.

— Jonathan Swift

Modesty may make a fool seem a man of sense.

— Jonathan Swift

I never knew any man cured of inattention.

— Jonathan Swift

For want of a block, man will stumble at a straw.

— Jonathan Swift

A wise man will find us to be rogues by our faces.

— Jonathan Swift

In men desire begets love, and in women love begets desire.

— Jonathan Swift

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

— Jonathan Swift

Men always grow vicious before they become unbelievers.

— Jonathan Swift

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

— Jonathan Swift

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

— Jonathan Swift

Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.

— Jonathan Swift

No man will take counsel, but every man will take money. Therefore, money is better than counsel.

— Jonathan Swift

If a man makes me keep my distance, the comfort is, he keeps his at the same time.

— Jonathan Swift

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

— Jonathan Swift

'T is an old maxim in the schools, That flattery 's the food of fools; Yet now and then your men of…

— Jonathan Swift

Most sorts of diversion in men, children and other animals, are in imitation of fighting.

— Jonathan Swift

Pride, ill nature, and want of sense are the three great sources of ill manners; without some one of these defects, no…

— Jonathan Swift

Dignity, high station, or great riches, are in some sort necessary to old men, in order to keep the younger at a…

— Jonathan Swift

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…

— Jonathan Swift

Who can deny that all men are violent lovers of the truth, when we see them so positive in their errors, which…

— Jonathan Swift

The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter and a scarcity of…

— Jonathan Swift

Books, like men their authors, have no more than one wayofcoming intothe world, but there areten thousand to go out of it,…

— Jonathan Swift

For to enter the palace of learning at the great gate requires an expense of time and forms, therefore men of much…

— Jonathan Swift

I have known some men possessed of good qualities which were very serviceable to others, but useless to themselves; like a sun-dial…

— Jonathan Swift

There are but three ways for a man to revenge himself of the censure of the world,--to despise it, to return the…

— Jonathan Swift

This single Stick, which you now behold ingloriously lying in that neglected Corner, I once knew in a flourishing State in a…

— Jonathan Swift

I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities, and all my love is toward individuals: for instance, I hate the tribe…

— Jonathan Swift

Conscience signifies that knowledge which a man hath of his own thoughts and actions; and because, if a man judgeth fairly of…

— Jonathan Swift

There is no talent so useful toward rising in the world, or which puts men more out of the reach of fortune,…

— Jonathan Swift

When you set about your composing, it may be necessary for your ease, and better distillation of wit, to put on your…

— Jonathan Swift

Vain men delight in telling what Honours have been done them, what great Company they have kept, and the like; by which…

— Jonathan Swift

The motives of the best actions will not bear too strict an inquiry. It is allowed that the cause of most actions,…

— Jonathan Swift

Surely mortal man is a broomstick!

— Jonathan Swift

Punning is a talent which no man affects to despise but he that is without it.

— Jonathan Swift

When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.

— Jonathan Swift

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

— Jonathan Swift

Love of flattery, in most men, proceeds from the mean opinion they have of themselves; in women, from the contrary.

— Jonathan Swift

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

— Jonathan Swift

When a man is made a spiritual peer he loses his surname; when a temporal, his Christian name.

— Jonathan Swift

There are few wild beasts more to be dreaded than a talking man having nothing to say.

— Jonathan Swift