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Jonathan Swift Quotes - Page 8

All Quotes Abuse Age Art Atheism Belief Character Children Church Coffee Cooking Corruption Country Criticism Desire Devil Eating Education Evil Fate Flattery Food Friends Friendship Funny Genius Giving Gold Greatness Greed Happiness Hate Heart Heaven House Inspirational Joy Judging Justice Kissing Language Life Literature Love Lying Madness Mankind Manners Mathematics Money Moon Pain Passion Philosophy Poetry Politics Praise Pride Quality Rain Reading Religion Romance Running Sarcasm Satire School Science Shame Style Success Talent Time Understanding Virtue Vision War Wine Wisdom Writing

What some people invent the rest enlarge.

What some people invent the rest enlarge.

People, Invention

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.

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

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.

Weed, Mind, Fields

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

Men always grow vicious before they become unbelievers.

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

'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.

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

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.

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

Bachelor's fare: bread and cheese, and kisses.

Food, Kissing, Cooking

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

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

Wise, Cat, Men

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

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.

Art, Animal, Ears

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

Kitchen Physic is the best Physic.

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

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.

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

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.

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

All panegyrics are mingled with an infusion of poppy.

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

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

Mistake, Literature

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

Philosophy! the lumber of the schools.

Philosophy, School, Lumber

'Ode to Sir W. Temple' (1692)

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.

Summer, War, Science

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

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

Sky, Astrology, Strange

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

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.

Believe, Justice, Heaven

Jonathan Swift (1808). “Works”, p.105

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.

Law, Special, Peculiar

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

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.

Time, Thinking, Self Improvement

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

Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.

Judging, Age, Literature

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.

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

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.

Degrees, Bulls, Mouths

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

What religion is he of? Why, he is an Anythingarian.

Religion

Come hither, all ye empty things, Ye bubbles rais'd by breath of Kings; Who float upon the tide of state, Come hither, and behold your fate. Let pride be taught by this rebuke, How very mean a thing's a Duke; From all his ill-got honours flung, Turn'd to that dirt from whence he sprung.

Kings, Mean, Fate

Jonathan Swift, Thomas Sheridan (1812). “The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift...”, p.283

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