Jonathan Swift Quotes - Page 5

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There seems to be no part of knowledge in fewer hands than that of discerning when to have done.

The chameleon, who is said to feed upon nothing but air, has of all animals the nimblest tongue.

No man will take counsel, but every man will take money. Therefore, money is better than counsel.

Once kick the world, and the world and you will live together at a reasonably good understanding.

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.

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

Usually speaking, the worst-bred person in company is a young traveller just returned from abroad.

That incessant envy wherewith the common rate of mankind pursues all superior natures to their own.

Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance.

I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities, and all my love is toward individuals.

When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.

Polite Conversation Why, everyone one as they like; as the good woman said when she kissed her cow.

Had Windham possessed discretion in debate, or Sheridan in conduct, they might have ruled their age.

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.

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

There were many times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails.

The example alone of a vicious prince will corrupt an age; but that of a good one will not reform it.

The tucked-up sempstress walks with hasty strides, While streams run down her oil'd umbrella's sides.

How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.

"Lawyers Are": Those whose interests and abilities lie in perverting, confounding and eluding the law.

It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom.

It is remarkable with what Christian fortitude and resignation we can bear the suffering of other folks.

The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance, and never to keep his word.

The ruin of a State is generally preceded by an universal degeneracy of manners and contempt of religion.

Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe, how much it altered her person for the worse.

If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a scoundrel.

You should never be ashamed to admit you have been wrong. It only proves you are wiser today than yesterday

It is a maxim, that those, to whom everybody allows the second place, have an undoubted title to the first.

Religion seems to have grown an infant with age, and requires miracles to nurse it, as it had in its infancy.

Such a man, truly wise, creams off Nature leaving the sour and the dregs for philosophy and reason to lap up.

Where there are large powers with little ambition... nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes.

It is as hard to satirize well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguished virtues.

Nothing more unqualified the man to act with prudence than a misfortune that is attended with shame and guilt.

The system of morality to be gathered from the ancient sages falls very short of that delivered in the gospel.

A poor spirit is poorer than a poor purse. A very few pounds a year would ease a man of the scandal of avarice.

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

The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as is the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at.

Principally I hate and detest that animal called man; although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth.

Old men and comets have been reverenced for the same reason: their long beards, and pretences to foretell events.

Apollo was held the god of physic and sender of disease. Both were originally the same trade, and still continue.

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

When a real genius appeares in this world, you'll know him by the fact that all the fools have allied against him.

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

Love of flattery, in most men, proceeds from the mean opinion they have of themselves; in women, from the contrary.

It is very unfair in any writer to employ ignorance and malice together, because it gives his answerer double work.

Daphne knows, with equal ease, How to vex and how to please; But the folly of her sex Makes her sole delight to vex.

If a man will observe as he walks the streets, I believe he will find the merriest countenances in mourning coaches.

To acknowledge you were wrong yesterday is simply to let the world know that you are wiser today than you were then.

The best Maxim I know in this life is, to drink your Coffee when you can, and when you cannot, to be easy without it.

The power of fortune is confessed only by the miserable, for the happy impute all their success to prudence or merit.

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