Jonathan Swift Quotes

Quotes about:

• Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect.

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Too Late, Limping

  Jonathan Swift, John Hawkesworth (1784). “The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin: Including the Whole of His Posthumous Pieces, Letters, &c”, p.15

  48 Copy quote

• When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.

  Jonathan Swift

  Funny, Education, Truth

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  92 Copy quote

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Writing, Yesterday, Rejection

  85 Copy quote

• You cannot reason a person out of something they were not reasoned into.

  Jonathan Swift

  Reason, Persons

  29 Copy quote

• We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

  Jonathan Swift

  Love, Religious, Hate

  'Thoughts on Various Subjects' (1706)

  119 Copy quote

• Every day is an opportunity to make a new happy ending. May you live all the days of your life.

  Jonathan Swift

  Opportunity, May, Happy Endings

  16 Copy quote

• There are few wild beasts more to be dreaded than a talking man having nothing to say.

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Talking, Beast

  56 Copy quote

• Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.

  Jonathan Swift

  Inspirational, Law, Break Through

  A Critical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind (1709) See Anacharsis 1

  117 Copy quote

• Vision is the Art of seeing Things invisible.

  Jonathan Swift

  Inspirational, Leadership, Teacher

  "Thoughts on various subjects (Further thoughts on various subjects)". Book by Jonathan Swift, 1745.

  102 Copy quote

• Live every day as your last, because one of these days, it will be.

  Jonathan Swift

  Lasts, These Days, Live Every Day

  14 Copy quote

• Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old.

  Jonathan Swift

  Cute, Men, Long

  45 Copy quote

• The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman.

  Jonathan Swift

  Inspirational, Funny, Humorous

  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.323

  19 Copy quote

• War: that mad game the world so loves to play.

  Jonathan Swift

  Military, War, Games

  Jonathan Swift (1860). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Copious Notes and Additions, and a Memoir of the Author”, p.204

  27 Copy quote

• Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.

  Jonathan Swift

  Blessed, Blessing, Power

  40 Copy quote

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Ruins, Manners, States

  Jonathan Swift, Thomas Roscoe (1859). “The works of Jonathan Swift, D.D.: with copious notes and additions and a memoir of the author”, p.244

  13 Copy quote

• I said there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are as slaves.

  Jonathan Swift

  Success, Art, Men

  Gulliver's Travels "A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms" ch. 5 (1726)

  6 Copy quote

• That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy.

  Jonathan Swift

  Philosophy, Believe, Fall

  97 Copy quote

• I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Evil, Guilt

  Jonathan Swift (1850). “The Works of Jonathan Swift: Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers, Not Hitherto Published ; with a Memoir of the Author”, p.307

  28 Copy quote

• Conversation is but carving! Give no more to every guest Than he's able to digest.

  Jonathan Swift

  Giving, Guests, Able

  Jonathan Swift (1860). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Copious Notes and Additions, and a Memoir of the Author”, p.332

  6 Copy quote

• Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want.

  Jonathan Swift

  Friendship, Family, Wisdom

  Jonathan Swift (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)”, p.1168, Delphi Classics

  34 Copy quote

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Government, Slavery, Definitions

  The Drapier's Letters no. 4 (1724)

  106 Copy quote

• A tavern is a place where madness is sold by the bottle.

  Jonathan Swift

  Drinking, Bottles, Literature

  19 Copy quote

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Advice, Warning, Mankind

  Jonathan Swift (1861). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Cop'ous Notes and Additions”, p.608

  16 Copy quote

• When I am reading a book, whether wise or silly, it seems to me to be alive and talking to me.

  Jonathan Swift

  Wise, Silly, Book

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

  35 Copy quote

• I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning.

  Jonathan Swift

  Good Morning, Good Day, Greatness

  22 Copy quote

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