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Jonathan Swift Quotes - Page 9

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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

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

My hunger serves me instead of a clock.

Jonathan Swift
Hunger, Clock

Pride, ill nature, and want of sense are the three great sources of ill manners; without some one of these defects, no man will behave himself ill for want of experience, or what, in the language of fools, is called knowing the world.

Jonathan Swift
Pride, Men, Knowing
Jonathan Swift (1861). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Cop'ous Notes and Additions”, p.621

Better belly burst than good liquor be lost.

Jonathan Swift
Alcohol, Liquor, Lost
Jonathan Swift (1761). “The Works of Dr Jonathan Swift, Dean of St Patrick's, Dublin. Accurately Corrected by the Best Editions. With the Author's Life and Character; Notes Historical, Critical, and Explanatory; Tables of Contents, and Indexes. More Complete Than Any Preceding Edition. In Eight Volumes”, p.322

The translators of the Bible were masters of an English style much fitter for that work than any we see in our present writings; the which is owing to the simplicity that runs through the whole.

Jonathan Swift
Bible, Running, Writing
Jonathan Swift (1803). “The Works”, p.55

Love why do we one passion call, When 'tis a compound of them all? Where hot and cold, where sharp and sweet, In all their equipages meet; Where pleasures mix'd with pains appear, Sorrow with joy, and hope with fear.

Jonathan Swift
Love, Sweet, Pain
Jonathan Swift (1843). “Works: Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers Not Hitherto Published”, p.681

Hereditary right should be kept sacred, not from any inalienable right in a particular family, but to avoid the consequences that usually attend the ambition of competitors.

Jonathan Swift
Ambition, Government, Sacred

What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not do we are told expressly.

Jonathan Swift
Heaven, Ignorant, Literature
'Thoughts on Various Subjects' (1706).

When we are old, our friends find it difficult to please us, and are less concerned whether we be pleased or not.

Jonathan Swift
Friendship, Difficult, Not Friends
Jonathan Swift (1861). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Cop'ous Notes and Additions”, p.612

The two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.

Jonathan Swift
Light, Two, Bees And Honey
The Battle of the Books (1704) See Matthew Arnold 27

Rebukes are easy from our betters, From men of quality and letters; But when low dunces will affront, What man alive can stand the brunt?

Jonathan Swift
Men, Quality, Alive
Jonathan Swift, “The Sick Lion And The Ass”

They say fish should swim thrice * * * first it should swim in the sea (do you mind me?) then it should swim in butter, and at last, sirrah, it should swim in good claret.

Jonathan Swift
Food, Lakes, Sea

It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end.

Jonathan Swift
Eggs, Gulliver's Travels, Break
Gulliver's Travels "A Voyage to Lilliput" ch. 4 (1726)

Men who possess all the advantages of life are in a state where there are many accidents to disorder and discompose, but few to please them.

Jonathan Swift
Men, Advantage, States
Jonathan Swift (1752). “The works of D. Jonathan Swift ...: To which is prefixed, the doctor's life, with remarks on his writings, from the Earl of Orrery and others, not to be found in any former edition of his works.Dublin printed”, p.279

I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs.

Jonathan Swift
Dog, Rain, Cat
Jonathan Swift (1761). “The Works of Dr Jonathan Swift, Dean of St Patrick's, Dublin. Accurately Corrected by the Best Editions. With the Author's Life and Character; Notes Historical, Critical, and Explanatory; Tables of Contents, and Indexes. More Complete Than Any Preceding Edition. In Eight Volumes”, p.331

The greatest Inventions were produced in Times of Ignorance; as the Use of the Compass, Gunpowder, and Printing; and by the dullest Nation, as the Germans.

Jonathan Swift
Ignorance, Science, Ignorant
Jonathan Swift (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)”, p.894, Delphi Classics

Men of wit, learning and virtue might strike out every offensive or unbecoming passage from plays.

Jonathan Swift
Drama, Men, Play

I have always a sacred veneration for anyone I observe to be a little out of repair in his person, as supposing him either a poet or a philosopher.

Jonathan Swift
Supposing That, Littles, Sacred
Jonathan Swift (1861). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Cop'ous Notes and Additions”, p.593

If they would, for Example, praise the Beauty of a Woman, or any other Animal, they describe it by Rhombs, Circles, Parallelograms, Ellipses, and other geometrical terms.

Jonathan Swift
Beauty, Women, Math
Jonathan Swift (1826). “Gulliver's Travels”

If the men of wit and genius would resolve never to complain in their works of critics and detractors, the next age would not know that they ever had any.

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

Ever eating, never cloying, All-devouring, all-destroying Never finding full repast, Till I eat the world at last.

Jonathan Swift
Time, Lasts, World
Jonathan Swift, Sir Walter Scott (1814). “The Works of Jonathan Swift: Riddles [and poems] by Dr. Swift and his friends. Verses addressed to Swift and to his memory. Epistolary correspondence”, p.25

My horses understand me tolerably well; I converse with them at least four hours every day. They are strangers to bridle or saddle; they live in great amity with me, and friendship of each other.

Jonathan Swift
Horse, Four, Stranger
Jonathan Swift (1826). “Gulliver's Travels”

Those dreams that on the silent night intrude, and with false flitting shapes our minds delude ... are mere productions of the brain. And fools consult interpreters in vain.

Jonathan Swift
Dream, Night, Mind

For though, in nature, depth and height Are equally held infinite: In poetry, the height we know; 'Tis only infinite below.

Jonathan Swift
Beauty, Art, Depth
Jonathan Swift (1841). “The Works. Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers, Not Hitherto Published. With Memoir of the Author, by Thomas Roscoe. -London, Washbourne 1841”, p.654

Religion supposed Heaven and Hell, the word of God, and sacraments, and twenty other circumstances which, taken seriously, are a wonderful check to wit and humour.

Jonathan Swift
Taken, Heaven, Atheism
Jonathan Swift, Sir Walter Scott (1814). “The Works of Jonathan Swift: Miscellaneous essays”, p.392

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