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Jonathan Swift Quotes
1667–1745 Ireland
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer and satirist. Acclaimed as one of the finest prose satirists in the English language, he was also well known for his poetry and essays.
Ireland Essayists Novelists Poets Satirists Also known as: Johnathan Swift, Swift, Swift, Jonathan
Random Jonathan Swift quote
177 quotes
War, that mad game the world so loves to play.
I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.
Gulliver's Travels (1726)
Men of great parts are often unfortunate in the management of public business, because they are apt to go out of the common road by the quickness of their imagination.
Instead of dirt and poison we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax; thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.
Pedantry is properly the over-rating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.
The two maxims of any great man at court are always to keep his countenance and never to keep his word.
Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711)
Under the rose, since here are none but friends,
Our passions are like convulsion fits, which make us stronger for the time, but leave us weaker forever after.
They never would hear,
We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
When I beheld this I sighed, and said within myself, Surely man is a Broomstick!
I love good creditable acquaintance; I love to be the worst of the company.
Oh how our neighbour lifts his nose,
I shall be like that tree; I shall die from the top.
'Tis very warm weather when one's in bed.
What religion is he of?
Polite Conversation (1738)
Nothing is so great an instance of ill manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none; if you flatter only one or two, you affront the rest.
Those dreams that on the silent night intrude,
On Dreams (1727)
For, in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery: but in fact, eleven men well armed will certainly subdue one single man in his shirt.
A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.
A Modest Proposal (1729)
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