Jonathan Swift Quotes
Most popular Jonathan Swift Quotes
Books, the children of the brain.
Don't set your wit against a child.
![Books [are] the children of the brain. - Jonathan Swift quote.](/img/q/14/5714A-books-are-the-children-of-the-brain-jonathan-swift.png)
Books [are] the children of the brain.
No wise man ever wished to be younger.
Money is the life blood of the nation.
May you live all the days of your life.
He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.
Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
In oratory the greatest art is to hide the art.
I shall live till all my friends are weary of me.
A wise man is never less alone than when he is alone.
Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it.
Style may be defined, 'proper words in proper places.'
There is nothing in this world constant but inconstancy.
Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old.
Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.
A wise man should have money in his head, not in his heart.
Whoe'er excels in what we prize, Appears a hero in our eyes.
Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.
We are so fond on one another because our ailments are the same.
She wears her clothes as if they were thrown on with a pitchfork.
Some people take more care to hide their wisdom than their folly.
We are so fond of one another, because our ailments are the same.
Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style.
Proper words in the proper places, make the true definition of a style.
Gold defiles with frequent touch; There's nothing fouls the hand so much.
I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.
It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.
We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
We have just Religion enough to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want.
Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.
Reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired.
When I am reading a book, whether wise or silly, it seems to me to be alive and talking to me.
No man will take counsel, but every man will take money. Therefore, money is better than counsel.
Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.
How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice, when they will not so much as take warning?
Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same posture with creeping.
The power of fortune is confessed only by the miserable, for the happy impute all their success to prudence or merit.
Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation; as it is generally in books the worst sort of reading.
Our passions are like convulsion fits, which, though they make us stronger for the time, leave us the weaker ever after.
Some modern zealots appear to have no better knowledge of truth, nor better manner of judging it, than by counting noses.
Interest is the spur of the people, but glory that of great souls. Invention is the talent of youth, and judgment of age.
It is with wits as with razors, which are never so apt to cut those they are employed on as when they have lost their edge.
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
The greatest advantage I know of being thought a wit by the world is, that it gives one the greater freedom of playing the fool.
One of the best rules in conversation is never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid.
![The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires is like cutting off our feet when we want [i.e., lack] shoes. - Jonathan Swift quote.](/img/q/57/25057A-the-stoical-scheme-of-supplying-our-wants-by-lopping-off-jonathan-swift.png)
The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires is like cutting off our feet when we want [i.e., lack] shoes.
'Tis 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.
All fits of pleasure are balanced by an equal degree of pain or languor; 'tis like spending this year part of the next year's revenue.
The latter part of a wise man's life is taken up in curing the follies, prejudices, and false opinions he had contracted in the former.
Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse; whoever makes the fewest people uneasy, is the best bred man in company.
Laws are like spider's webs, which hold firm when any light, yielding object falls upon them, while a larger thing breaks through them and escapes.
If a man should register all his opinions upon love, politics, religion, learning, etc., beginning from his youth, and so go on to old age, what a bundle of inconsistencies and contradictions would appear at last.
In oratory, the greatest art is to hide art.
Nothing is so hard for those, who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want.
Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same position with creeping.
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest people uneasy is the best bred in the room.
Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse, Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy, is the best bred in the company.
