Jonathan Swift

Tis nothing when you are used to it.

— Jonathan Swift

May you live all the days of your life.

— Jonathan Swift

A lie is an excuse guarded

— Jonathan Swift

Vision is seeing the invisible.

— Jonathan Swift

The more careless, the more modish.

— Jonathan Swift

Argument is the worst sort of conversation.

— Jonathan Swift

He was a bold man that first eat on oyster.

— Jonathan Swift

Tell truth, and shame the devil.

— Jonathan Swift

“A wise man is never less alone than when he is alone.”

— Jonathan Swift

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

— Jonathan Swift

My father had a small Estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the Third of five Sons.

— Jonathan Swift

War: that mad game the world so loves to play.

— Jonathan Swift

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

— Jonathan Swift

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

— Jonathan Swift

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

— Jonathan Swift

I must complain the cards are ill shuffled till I have a good hand.

— Jonathan Swift

The latter part of a wise person's life is occupied with curing the follies, prejudices and false opinions they contracted earlier.

— Jonathan Swift

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

— Jonathan Swift

Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same posture with creeping.

— 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

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

— Jonathan Swift

“ponderando os seus serviços e seguindo a suavidade do seu espírito, queria poupar-lhe a vida e contentar-se em tirar-lhe os olhos.”

— Jonathan Swift

The ruin of a State is generally preceded by an universal degeneracy of manners and contempt of religion.

— Jonathan Swift

Had Windham possessed discretion in debate, or Sheridan in conduct, they might have ruled their age.

— 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

A jargon form'd from the lost language, wit, Confounded in that Babel of the pit; Form'd by diseased conceptions, weak and wild,…

— Jonathan Swift

All Pretences of foretelling by Astrology, are Deceits; for this manifest Reason, because the Wise and Learned, who can only judge whether…

— 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

Imaginary evils soon become real ones by indulging our reflections on them; as he who in a melancholy fancy sees something like…

— Jonathan Swift

The most ignorant person, at a reasonable charge, and with a little bodily labour, might write books in philosophy, poetry, politics, laws,…

— Jonathan Swift

It is in disputes as in armies, where the weaker side sets up false lights, and makes a great noise, to make…

— 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

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

— Jonathan Swift

“Whatever reader desires to have a thorough comprehension of an author's thoughts cannot take a better method than by putting himself into…

— 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

“I replied that England (the dear place of my nativity) was computed to produce three times the quantity of food, more than…

— Jonathan Swift

“These reasonings will furnish us with an adequate definition of a true critic: that he is a discoverer and collector of writers’…

— Jonathan Swift

“He said, he knew no reason why those who entertain opinions prejudicial to the public should be obliged to change, or should…

— Jonathan Swift

“Here commences a new dominion acquired with a title by divine right.   Ships are sent with the first opportunity; the natives…

— Jonathan Swift

I hope you will be ready to own publicly, whenever you shall be called to it, that by your great and frequent…

— Jonathan Swift