A forward critic often dupes us With sham quotations peri hupsos, And if we have not read Longinus, Will magisterially outshine us.… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
I have now lost my barrier between me and death; God grant I may live to be as well prepared for it,… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
If a lump of soot falls into the soup and you cannot conveniently get it out, stir it well in and it… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
Vain men delight in telling what Honours have been done them, what great Company they have kept, and the like; by which… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
She 's no chicken; she 's on the wrong side of thirty, if she be a day. — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
If it were a rainy day, a drunken vigil, a fit of the spleen, a course of physic, sleepy Sunday, an ill… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
It is not so much the being exempt from faults as the having overcome them that is an advantage to us; it… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
Hail, follow, well met, All dirty and wet: Find out, if you can, Who's master, who's man. — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
If they would, for Example, praise the Beauty of a Woman, or any other Animal, they describe it by Rhombs, Circles, Parallelograms,… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
An English tongue, if refined to a certain standard, might perhaps be fixed forever. — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
There never appear more than five or six men of genius in an age, but if they were united the world could… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
It often happens that, if a lie be believed only for an hour, it has done its work, and there is no… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
If the men of wit and genius would resolve never to complain in their works of critics and detractors, the next age… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Conscience signifies that knowledge which a man hath of his own thoughts and actions; and because, if a man judgeth fairly of… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
Neither are any wars so furious and bloody, or of so long continuance as those occasioned by difference in opinion, especially if… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
I'll give you leave to call me anything, if you don't call me spade. — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
If a man will observe as he walks the streets, I believe he will find the merriest countenances in mourning coaches. — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
But you think that it is time for me to have done with the world, and so I would if I could… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
I am convinced that if the virtuosi could once find out a world in the moon, with a passage to it, our… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
If you were not reasoned into your beliefs, you cannot be reasoned out of them. — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
Brisk talkers are usually slow thinkers. There is, indeed, no wild beast more to be dreaded than a communicative man having nothing… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
Time is painted with a lock before, and bald behind, signifying thereby that we must take time by the forelock; for, when it is… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
“He said, he knew no reason why those who entertain opinions prejudicial to the public should be obliged to change, or should not be… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
I with borrow'd silver shine, What you see is none of mine. First I show you but a quarter, Like the bow that guards… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed. — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
The best Maxim I know in this life is, to drink your Coffee when you can, and when you cannot, to be easy without… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
A forward critic often dupes us With sham quotations peri hupsos, And if we have not read Longinus, Will magisterially outshine us. Then, lest… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
Ale is meat, drink and cloth; it will make a cat speak and a wise man dumb. — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
All fits of pleasure are balanced by an equal degree of pain or languor; it is like spending this year part of the next… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
