Jonathan Swift Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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.

  88 Copy quote

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Reason, Persons

  21 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

  79 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

  12 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)

  110 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

  113 Copy quote

• 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

  45 Copy quote

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Talking, Beast

  53 Copy quote

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Cute, Men, Long

  43 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.

  99 Copy quote

• Reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Opinion, Ill

  Jonathan Swift (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)”, p.1227, Delphi Classics

  5 Copy quote

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Lasts, These Days, Live Every Day

  11 Copy quote

• Brisk talkers are generally slow thinkers.

  Jonathan Swift

  Talking, Thinker, Talkers

  7 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

  16 Copy quote

• Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind reception it meets with in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.

  Jonathan Swift

  Sarcasm, Glasses, Faces

  Jonathan Swift (2013). “The Very Best of Jonathan Swift In Plain and Simple English (Translated)”, p.534, BookCaps Study Guides

  15 Copy quote

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Blessed, Blessing, Power

  34 Copy quote

• Many a truth is told in jest.

  Jonathan Swift

  Wisdom, Truth Is, Jest

  15 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)

  103 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

  26 Copy quote

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Drinking, Bottles, Literature

  17 Copy quote

• What poet would not grieve to see
  His brother write as well as he?
  But rather than they should excel,
  He'd wish his rivals all in Hell.

  Jonathan Swift

  Brother, Writing, Grieving

  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.655

  3 Copy quote

• Party is the madness of many for the gain of a few.

  Jonathan Swift

  Party, Political, Politics

  Jonathan Swift, Sir Walter Scott (1814). “The Works of Jonathan Swift: Miscellanies, by Mr. Pope, Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Gay, &c. Prose miscellanies by Swift and Sheridan”, p.255

  8 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

  15 Copy quote

• It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.

  Jonathan Swift

  Acceptance, Men, Religion

  Attributed to Jonathan Swift in "Scientific American", Volume 7 (p. 338), 1851; also in M. M. Ballou "Treasury of Thought" (p. 433), 1884.

  12 Copy quote

• There's none so blind as they that won't see.

  Jonathan Swift

  Life, Blind, Blindness

  Jonathan Swift, Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols (1808). “The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D. ...: With Notes, Historical and Critical”, p.446

  25 Copy quote

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