Jonathan Swift Quotes - Page 13

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• I remember it was with extreme difficulty that I could bring my master to understand the meaning of the word opinion, or how a point could be disputable; because reason taught us to affirm or deny only where we are certain; and beyond our knowledge we cannot do either.

  Jonathan Swift

  Taught Us, Opinion, Remember

  Jonathan Swift (2005). “Gulliver's Travels - Literary Touchstone Edition”, p.233, Prestwick House Inc

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• Satire, being levelled at all, is never resented for an offence by any.

  Jonathan Swift

  Satire, Offence

  'A Tale of a Tub' (1704) 'The Author's Preface'

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Young, Worst, Company

  Jonathan Swift, Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols (1801). “The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin”, p.221

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• O Grub Street! how do I bemoan thee, whose graceless children scorn to own thee! . Yet thou hast greater cause to be ashamed of them, than they of thee.

  Jonathan Swift

  Art, Children, Writing

  Jonathan Swift, Thomas Roscoe (1859). “The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D.: With Copious Notes and Additions and a Memoir of the Author”, p.354

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• Silks, velvets, calicoes, and the whole lexicon of female fopperies.

  Jonathan Swift

  Fashion, Female, Velvet

  Jonathan Swift (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)”, p.1604, Delphi Classics

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• By candle-light nobody would have taken you for above five-and-twenty.

  Jonathan Swift

  Taken, Light, Age

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• If a man makes me keep my distance, the comfort is, he keeps his at the same time.

  Jonathan Swift

  Distance, Men, Comfort

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

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Kings, Age, Example

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• A little grain of the romance is no ill ingredient to preserve and exalt the dignity of human nature, without which it is apt to degenerate into everything that is sordid, vicious and low.

  Jonathan Swift

  Romance, Ingredients, Degenerates

  Jonathan Swift (1861). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Cop'ous Notes and Additions”, p.582

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• Brutes find out where their talents lie; a bear will not attempt to fly.

  Jonathan Swift

  Lying, Bears, Talent

  Jonathan Swift, Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols (1801). “Poems, Polite convesation, etc”, p.166

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• Under the rose, since here are none but friends, To own the truth we have some private ends.

  Jonathan Swift

  Rose, Secrecy, Ends

  Jonathan Swift, Thomas Sheridan (1812). “The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift...”, p.237

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• 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.

  Jonathan Swift

  Cutting, Razors, Lost

  Jonathan Swift (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)”, p.27, Delphi Classics

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• Surely mortal man is a broomstick!

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Broomsticks, Mortals

  1710 A Meditation upon a Broomstick.

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• Ingratitude is amongst them a capital crime, as we read it to have been in some other countries: for they reason thus; that whoever makes ill-returns to his benefactor, must needs be a common enemy to the rest of the mankind, from where he has received no obligations and therefore such man is not fit to live.

  Jonathan Swift

  Country, Men, Enemy

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• Would a writer know how to behave himself with relation td posterity? Let him consider in old books what he finds that he is glad to know, and what omissions he most laments.

  Jonathan Swift

  Book, Omission, Authorship

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• The more careless, the more modish.

  Jonathan Swift

  Careless

  1738 Polite Conversation, dialogue 1.

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• In all assemblies, though you wedge them ever so close, we may observe this peculiar property, that over their heads there is room enough; but how to reach it is the difficult point. To this end the philosopher's way in all ages has been by erecting certain edifices in the air.

  Jonathan Swift

  Air, Age, May

  Jonathan Swift (2004). “A Modest Proposal and Other Prose”, p.61, Barnes & Noble Publishing

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• Unjustly poets we asperse: Truth shines the brighter clad in verse, And all the fictions they pursue Do but insinuate what is true.

  Jonathan Swift

  Shining, Fiction, Poet

  Jonathan Swift (1860). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Copious Notes and Additions, and a Memoir of the Author”, p.430

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• Conscience signifies that knowledge which a man hath of his own thoughts and actions; and because, if a man judgeth fairly of his actions by comparing them with the law of God, his mind will approve or condemn him; this knowledge or conscience may be both an accuser and a judge.

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Law, Judging

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Apollo, Disease, Trade

  Jonathan Swift, Thomas Roscoe (1859). “The works of Jonathan Swift, D.D.: with copious notes and additions and a memoir of the author”, p.615

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• Arbitrary power is but the first natural step from anarchy, or the savage life.

  Jonathan Swift

  Savages, Arbitrary, Anarchy

  Jonathan Swift (1803). “The Works”, p.316

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• Whatever the poets pretend, it is plain they give immortality to none but themselves; it is Homer and Virgil we reverence and admire, not Achilles or Aeneas. With historians it is quite the contrary; our thoughts are taken up with the actions, persons, and events we read, and we little regard the authors.

  Jonathan Swift

  Taken, Aeneas, Giving

  Jonathan Swift (2010). “The Battle of the Books: And Other Works, Including 'A Modest Proposal'”, p.187, The Floating Press

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• Atlas, we read in ancient song, Was so exceeding tall and strong, He bore the skies upon his back, Just as the pedler does his pack; But, as the pedler overpress'd Unloads upon a stall to rest, Or, when he can no longer stand, Desires a friend to lend a hand, So Atlas, lest the ponderous spheres Should sink, and fall about his ears, Got Hercules to bear the pile, That he might sit and rest awhile.

  Jonathan Swift

  Song, Strong, Fall

  Jonathan Swift (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)”, p.3013, Delphi Classics

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

  Jonathan Swift

  Hands, Done, Fewer

  Jonathan Swift, Paul Anton Fedor Constantin POSSART (1831). “A Tale of a Tub and the Battle of the Books ... Mit Anmerkungen herausgegeben von P. A. Fedor Possart”, p.114

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• Though fear should lend him pinions like the wind, yet swifter fate will seize him from behind.

  Jonathan Swift

  Fate, Wind, Should

  Jonathan Swift (1860). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Copious Notes and Additions, and a Memoir of the Author”, p.507

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