Jonathan Swift Quotes - Page 8

Quotes about:

What some people invent the rest enlarge.

Jonathan Swift

People, Invention

6 Copy quote
'T is an old maxim in the schools, That flattery 's the food of fools; Yet now and then your men of wit Will condescend to take a bit.

Jonathan Swift

School, Men, Cooking

Jonathan Swift, Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols (1801). “The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin”, p.121

12 Copy quote
No man of honor, as the word is usually understood, did ever pretend that his honor obliged him to be chaste or temperate, to pay his creditors, to be useful to his country, to do good to mankind, to endeavor to be wise or learned, to regard his word, his promise, or his oath.

Jonathan Swift

Wise, Country, Men

Jonathan Swift, Thomas Roscoe (1859). “The works of Jonathan Swift, D.D.: with copious notes and additions and a memoir of the author”, p.149

4 Copy quote
'Tis happy for him that his Father was born before him.

Jonathan Swift

Father, Conversation, Polite

"Parodies, Hoaxes, Mock Treatises: Polite Conversation, Directions to Servants and Other Works".

52 Copy quote
Who can deny that all men are violent lovers of the truth, when we see them so positive in their errors, which they will maintain out of their zeal for truth, although they contradict themselves every day of their lives.

Jonathan Swift

Mistake, Men, Errors

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

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

Jonathan Swift

Wise, Cat, Men

Jonathan Swift (1861). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Copious Notes and Additions, and a Memoir of the Author”, p.80

6 Copy quote
Whoe'er excels in what we prize,
Appears a hero in our eyes;
Each girl, when pleased with what is taught,
Will have the teacher in her thought.
. . . .
A blockhead with melodious voice,
In boarding-schools may have his choice.

Jonathan Swift

Girl, Teacher, Teaching

Jonathan Swift, Thomas Roscoe (1843). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers, Not Hitherto Published ... With Memoir of the Author”, p.681

12 Copy quote
Bachelor's fare: bread and cheese, and kisses.

Jonathan Swift

Food, Kissing, Cooking

Jonathan Swift, John Hawkesworth (1778). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Notes Historical and Critical”, p.182

7 Copy quote
Punning is an art of harmonious jingling upon words, which, passing in at the ears, excites a titillary motion in those parts; and this, being conveyed by the animal spirits into the muscles of the face, raises the cockles of the heart.

Jonathan Swift

Art, Animal, Ears

Jonathan Swift (1803). “The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift ...”, p.125

7 Copy quote
Kitchen Physic is the best Physic.

Jonathan Swift

Food, Kitchen

Jonathan Swift (1738). “A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation: According to the Most Polite Mode and Method Now Used at Court, and in the Best Companies of England”, p.154

8 Copy quote
I will venture to affirm, that the three seasons wherein our corn has miscarried did no more contribute to our present misery, than one spoonful of water thrown upon a rat already drowned would contribute to his death; and that the present plentiful harvest, although it should be followed by a dozen ensuing, would no more restore us, than it would the rat aforesaid to put him near the fire, which might indeed warm his fur-coat, but never bring him back to life.

Jonathan Swift

War, Fire, Water

Jonathan Swift (1841). “The works of Jonathan Swift, containing papers not hitherto publ. With memoir of the author by T. Roscoe”, p.98

16 Copy quote
If a lump of soot falls into the soup and you cannot conveniently get it out, stir it well in and it will give the soup a French taste.

Jonathan Swift

Fall, Giving, Cooking

Jonathan Swift, Thomas Roscoe (1859). “The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D.: With Copious Notes and Additions and a Memoir of the Author”, p.114

9 Copy quote
There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.

Jonathan Swift

Mistake, Literature

Jonathan Swift, Sir Walter Scott (1814). “The Works of Jonathan Swift: Miscellaneous essays”, p.214

7 Copy quote
All panegyrics are mingled with an infusion of poppy.

Jonathan Swift

Poppies, Praise, Infusion

Jonathan Swift, David Laing Purves (1871). “The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D.: Carefully Selected; with a Biography of the Author”, p.520

8 Copy quote
Philosophy! the lumber of the schools.

Jonathan Swift

Philosophy, School, Lumber

'Ode to Sir W. Temple' (1692)

7 Copy quote
He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put into vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw, inclement summers.

Jonathan Swift

Summer, War, Science

Gulliver's Travels "A Voyage to Laputa, etc." ch. 5 (1726)

35 Copy quote
Strange an astrologer should die, without one wonder in the sky.

Jonathan Swift

Sky, Astrology, Strange

Jonathan Swift (1860). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Copious Notes and Additions, and a Memoir of the Author”, p.242

4 Copy quote
I have now lost my barrier between me and death; God grant I may live to be as well prepared for it, as I confidently believe her to have been! If the way to Heaven be through piety, truth, justice and charity, she is there.

Jonathan Swift

Believe, Justice, Heaven

Jonathan Swift (1808). “Works”, p.105

4 Copy quote
Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.

Jonathan Swift

Judging, Age, Literature

9 Copy quote
It is likewise to be observed that this society hath a peculiar chant and jargon of their own, that no other mortal can understand, and wherein all their laws are written, which they take special care to multiply.

Jonathan Swift

Law, Special, Peculiar

"Gulliver's Travels". Book by Jonathan Swift. Part IV: "A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms". Chapter 5, 1726.

4 Copy quote
But you think that it is time for me to have done with the world, and so I would if I could get into a better before I was called into the best, and not die here in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole.

Jonathan Swift

Time, Thinking, Self Improvement

Letter to Bolingbroke, 21 March 1730, in Harold Williams (ed.) 'The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift' vol. 3 (1963) p. 382

7 Copy quote
What religion is he of?
Why, he is an Anythingarian.

Jonathan Swift

Religion

8 Copy quote
What we call the Irish Brogue is no sooner discovered, than it makes the deliverer, in the last degree, ridiculous and despised; and, from such a mouth, an Englishman expects nothing but bulls, blunders, and follies.

Jonathan Swift

Degrees, Bulls, Mouths

Jonathan Swift, Sir Walter Scott (1824). “The drapier's letters (cont.) Miscellaneous tracts upon Irish affairs. Sermons”, p.148

9 Copy quote
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

8 Copy quote
Your notions of friendship are new to me; I believe every man is born with his quantum, and he cannot give to one without robbing another. I very well know to whom I would give the first place in my friendship, but they are not in the way, I am condemned to another scene, and therefore I distribute it in pennyworths to those about me, and who displease me least, and should do the same to my fellow prisoners if I were condemned to a jail.

Jonathan Swift

Friends, Believe, Men

Jonathan Swift, Thomas Roscoe (1859). “The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D.: With Copious Notes and Additions and a Memoir of the Author”, p.359

4 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Charles Dickens

William Faulkner

Jonathan Swift

Follow

Born: November 30, 1667
Died: October 19, 1745
Occupation: Pamphleteer
Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics