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Portrait of Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

(1667–1745) Satirical Novelist Kingdom of Ireland

535 quotes in 1651 categories

Jonathan Swift was a satirical novelist from the Kingdom of Ireland, best known for Gulliver's Travels.

Quick Facts About Jonathan Swift

Born: November 30, 1667
Died: October 19, 1745
Nationality: Kingdom of Ireland
Profession: Satirical Novelist
Notable works: Gulliver's Travels
Known for: Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Tale of a Tub

About Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. He was the author of the satirical prose novel Gulliver's Travels (1726) and the creator of the fictional island of Lilliput. He is regarded by many as the greatest satirist of the Georgian era and one of the foremost prose authors in the history of English and world literature.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by Jonathan Swift

Time is painted with a lock before, and bald behind, signifying thereby that we must take time by the forelock; for, when…

Behinds

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

Politics

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I with borrow'd silver shine, What you see is none of mine. First I show you but a quarter, Like the bow…

Bows

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A favor is half granted, when graciously refused.

Favors

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

Ashamed

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The best Maxim I know in this life is, to drink your Coffee when you can, and when you cannot, to be…

Believe

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A lie is an excuse guarded

Excuse

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A forward critic often dupes us With sham quotations peri hupsos, And if we have not read Longinus, Will magisterially outshine us.…

Book

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May you live every day of your life.

Every day

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

Ale

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All fits of pleasure are balanced by an equal degree of pain or languor; it is like spending this year part of…

Pleasure

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Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for…

Beholder

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“When a great genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy…

Dunces

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

Animal

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So endless and exorbitant are the desires of men that they will grasp at all, and can form no scheme of perfect…

Desire

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Vanity is a natural object of temptation to a woman.

Natural

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

Comfort

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Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.

Satire

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A true critic, in the perusal of a book, is like a dog at a feast, whose thoughts and stomach are wholly…

Bones

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May you live all the days of your life.

Life

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Walls have tongues, and hedges ears.

Ears

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“So Geographers in Afric-maps With Savage-Pictures fill their Gaps; And o'er uninhabitable Downs Place Elephants for want of Towns”

Elephants

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The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance, and never to keep his word.

Countenance

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I have now lost my barrier between me and death; God grant I may live to be as well prepared for it,…

Barriers

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

Creatures

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Jonathan Swift by topic

Men (90) Inspirational (31) Ifs (29) World (26) Nature (25) Life (24) Age (24) Religion (22) Love (22) Books (22) Should (19) Reason (18) May (18) Wells (17) Book (17)