Jonathan Swift Quotes About Desire

Quotes about: Desire

• Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old.

  Jonathan Swift

  Cute, Men, Long

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Money, Cutting, Shoes

  Thoughts on Various Subjects (1711)

• 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

  Lying, Hype, Desire

• When we desire or solicit anything, our minds run wholly on the good side or circumstances of it; when it is obtained, our minds run wholly on the bad ones.

  Jonathan Swift

  Running, Greed, Mind

  Jonathan Swift (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)”, p.893, Delphi Classics

• Vain men delight in telling what Honours have been done them, what great Company they have kept, and the like; by which they plainly confess, that these Honours were more than their Due, and such as their Friends would not believe if they had not been told: Whereas a Man truly proud, thinks the greatest Honours below his Merit, and consequently scorns to boast. I therefore deliver it as a Maxim that whoever desires the Character of a proud Man, ought to conceal his Vanity.

  Jonathan Swift

  Believe, Character, Pride

  Jonathan Swift (1856). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers, Not Hitherto Published ... With Memoir of the Author”, p.305

• Two friendships in two breasts requires The same aversions and desires.

  Jonathan Swift

  Friendship, Two, Feelings

  Jonathan Swift, William Broome, Samuel Johnson (1822). “The Poems of Jonathan Swift ...”, p.217

• Atlas, we read in ancient song, Was so exceeding tall and strong, He bore the skies upon his back, Just as the pedler does his pack; But, as the pedler overpress'd Unloads upon a stall to rest, Or, when he can no longer stand, Desires a friend to lend a hand, So Atlas, lest the ponderous spheres Should sink, and fall about his ears, Got Hercules to bear the pile, That he might sit and rest awhile.

  Jonathan Swift

  Song, Strong, Fall

  Jonathan Swift (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)”, p.3013, Delphi Classics

• So endless and exorbitant are the desires of men that they will grasp at all, and can form no scheme of perfect happiness with less.

  Jonathan Swift

  Happiness, Men, Perfect

  Jonathan Swift, Thomas Roscoe (1859). “The works of Jonathan Swift, D.D.: with copious notes and additions and a memoir of the author”, p.420

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Love, Men, Desire

  Jonathan Swift, John Hawkesworth (1766). “Letters, Written by the Late Jonathan Swift ... and Several of His Friends: From the Year 1703-to 1740. Published from the Originals; with Notes Explanatory and Historical”, p.117

• Everyone desires long life, not one old age.

  Jonathan Swift

  Long, Age, Desire

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