177 quotes
I thought you and he were hand-in-glove.
Polite Conversation (1738)
I always love to begin a journey on Sundays, because I shall have the prayers of the church to preserve all that travel by land, or water.
Polite Conversation (1738)
No wise man ever wished to be younger.
Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711)
Bread is the staff of life.
A Tale of a Tub (1704)
What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not we are told expressly: that they neither marry, nor are given in marriage.
Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711)
As learned commentators view
In Homer more than Homer knew.
On Poetry: Poetry, a Rhapsody (1733)
I have fed like a farmer: I shall grow as fat as a porpoise.
Polite Conversation (1738)
So, nat'ralists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey,
And these have smaller still to bite 'em
And so proceed ad infinitum.
The sight of you is good for sore eyes.
Polite Conversation (1738)
May you live all the days of your life.
Polite Conversation (1738)
A penny for your thoughts.
Polite Conversation (1738)
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.
A Modest Proposal (1729)
This evil fortune, which generally attends extraordinary men in the management of great affairs, has been imputed to divers causes, that need not be here set down, when so obvious a one occurs, if what a certain writer observes be true, that when a great genius appears in the world the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
Essay on the Fates of Clergymen (1728)
It is a maxim among lawyers that whatever hath been done before may be done again, and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and the general reason of mankind. These, under the name of precedents, they produce as authorities to justify the most iniquitous opinions, and the judges never fail of directing them accordingly.
Gulliver's Travels (1726)
So geographers, in Afric maps,
With savage pictures fill their gaps,
And o'er unhabitable downs
Place elephants for want of towns.
On Poetry: Poetry, a Rhapsody (1733)
That's as well said, as if I had said it myself.
Polite Conversation (1738)
He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.
Polite Conversation (1738)
You must take the will for the deed.
Polite Conversation (1738)
'Tis as cheap sitting as standing.
Polite Conversation (1738)
A prince, the moment he is crown'd,
Inherits every virtue sound,
As emblems of the sovereign power,
Like other baubles in the Tower:
Is generous, valiant, just, and wise,
And so continues till he dies.