Jonathan Swift Quotes - Page 7

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• Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy, is the best bred man in company.

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Company, Uneasy

  8 Copy quote

• A pleasant companion is as good as a coach.

  Jonathan Swift

  Companion, Coaches, Pleasant

  5 Copy quote

• Brisk talkers are usually slow thinkers. There is, indeed, no wild beast more to be dreaded than a communicative man having nothing to communicate. If you are civil to the voluble they will abuse your patience; if brusque, your character.

  Jonathan Swift

  Character, Men, Talking

  6 Copy quote

• It is a miserable thing to live in suspense; it is the life of the spider.

  Jonathan Swift

  Spiders, Suspense, Miserable

  Jonathan Swift, Thomas Sheridan (1812). “The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift...”, p.169

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• Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation, as it is generally in books the worst sort of reading.

  Jonathan Swift

  Book, Reading, Argument

  "The works of Dean Swif".

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• Have you not observed that there is a lower kind of discretion and regularity, which seldom fails of raising men to the highest station in the court, the church, and the law?

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Law, Church

  Jonathan Swift, Sir Walter Scott (1824). “Epistolary correspondence. Letters from August 1714, to September 1724”, p.332

  7 Copy quote

• The scholars of Ireland seem not to have the least conception of style, but run on in a flat phraseology, often mingled with barbarous terms.

  Jonathan Swift

  Running, Style, Term

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• Complaint is the largest tribute heaven receives and the sincerest part of our devotion.

  Jonathan Swift

  Prayer, Heaven, Devotion

  Jonathan Swift (1755). “The works of Jonathan Swift ...: accurately revised ... adorned with copperplates; with some account of the author's life, and notes historical and explanatory”, p.227

  9 Copy quote

• Very few men, properly speaking, live at present, but are providing to live another time.

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Another Time, Providing

  Jonathan Swift (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)”, p.899, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• Brutes find out where their talents lie; A bear will not attempt to fly, A foundered horse will oft debate Before he tries a five barred gate. A dog by instinct turns aside Who sees the ditch too deep and wide, But man we find the only creature Who, led by folly, combats nature; Who, when she loudly cries-Forbear! With obstinacy fixes there; And where the genius least inclines, Absurdly bends his whole designs.

  Jonathan Swift

  Dog, Horse, Lying

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• I love white Portugal wine better than claret, champagne, or burgundy. I have a sad vulgar appetite.

  Jonathan Swift

  Wine, White, Portugal

  Jonathan Swift, Thomas Roscoe (1859). “The works of Jonathan Swift, D.D.: with copious notes and additions and a memoir of the author”, p.373

  10 Copy quote

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Strength, Men, Gold

  Jonathan Swift (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)”, p.896, Delphi Classics

  8 Copy quote

• There is nothing in this world constant, but inconstancy.

  Jonathan Swift

  Literature, World, Constant

  'A Critical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind' (1709)

  7 Copy quote

• Where I am not understood, it shall be concluded that something very useful and profound is couched underneath.

  Jonathan Swift

  Profound, Understanding, Literature

  Jonathan Swift (2004). “A Modest Proposal and Other Prose”, p.57, Barnes & Noble Publishing

  7 Copy quote

• Come, agree, the law's costly.

  Jonathan Swift

  Funny, Humor, Law

  4 Copy quote

• The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.

  Jonathan Swift

  Funny, Marriage, Time

  'Thoughts on Various Subjects' (1706)

  13 Copy quote

• There is nothing constant in this world but inconsistency.

  Jonathan Swift

  World, This World, Inconsistency

  29 Copy quote

• So geographers, in Africa maps, With savage pictures fill their gaps, And o'er uninhabitable downs Place elephants for want of towns

  Jonathan Swift

  Elephants, Savages, Maps

  60 Copy quote

• A ridiculous passion which hath no being but in play-books and romances.

  Jonathan Swift

  Love, Book, Passion

  Jonathan Swift, Deane Swift, Thomas Birch, Thomas Wilkes, Thomas Hawkesworth (1768). “The Works of the Reverend Dr. Jonathan Swift: Miscellanies in prose”, p.366

  4 Copy quote

• Positiveness is a good quality for preachers and speakers because, whoever shares his thoughts with the public will convince them as he himself appears convinced.

  Jonathan Swift

  Optimism, Quality, Share

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• How often do we contradict the right rules of reason in the whole course of our lives! Reason itself is true and just, but the reason of every particular man is weak and wavering, perpetually swayed and turned by his interests, his passions, and his vices.

  Jonathan Swift

  Passion, Men, Wavering

  Jonathan Swift (1761). “The Works ...: With the Author's Life and Character, Notes [etc.] In Eight Volumes”, p.262

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• Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.

  Jonathan Swift

  Littles, Gulliver's Travels, Philosopher

  Jonathan Swift (1826). “Gulliver's Travels”, p.103

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• If it were a rainy day, a drunken vigil, a fit of the spleen, a course of physic, sleepy Sunday, an ill run at dice, a long tailor's bill, a beggar's purse, a factious head, a hot sun, costive diet, want of books, and a just contempt for learning - but for these. . .the number of authors and of writing would dwindle away to a degree most woeful to behold.

  Jonathan Swift

  Running, Book, Writing

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• It is not so much the being exempt from faults as the having overcome them that is an advantage to us; it being with the follies of the mind as with weeds of a field, which if destroyed and consumed upon the place where they grow, enrich and improve it more than if none had ever sprung there.

  Jonathan Swift

  Weed, Mind, Fields

  Jonathan Swift (1843). “Works: Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers Not Hitherto Published”, p.836

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• Men always grow vicious before they become unbelievers.

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Vicious, Grows

  Jonathan Swift, Thomas Roscoe (1859). “The works of Jonathan Swift, D.D.: with copious notes and additions and a memoir of the author”, p.319

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