Jonathan Swift: Trending quotes

Jonathan Swift trending quotes. Read the latest quotes in collection

Jonathan Swift: 282 quotes6 likes

“A soldier is a "Yahoo" hired to kill in cold blood as many of his own Species, who have never offended him, as possibly he can.”

Jonathan Swift

“This made me reflect, how vain an attempt it is for a man to endeavor to do himself honor among those who are out of all degree of equality or comparison with him.”

Jonathan Swift book Les Voyages de Gulliver

Source: Gulliver's Travels

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

Jonathan Swift

Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 2

“I won't quarrel with my bread and butter.”

Jonathan Swift

Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 1

“Men are contented to be laughed at for their wit, but not for their folly.”

Jonathan Swift

Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)

“Promises and pie-crust are made to be broken.”

Jonathan Swift

Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 1

“It is impossible that any thing so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have been designed by Providence as an evil to mankind.”

Jonathan Swift

Thoughts on Religion (1765), published posthumously

“I mean you lie—under a mistake.”

Jonathan Swift

Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 1

“That's as well said, as if I had said it myself.”

Jonathan Swift

Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 2

“There is, indeed, no wild beast more to be dreaded than a communicative man having nothing to communicate.”

Jonathan Swift

Christian Nestell Bovee, in Intuitions and Summaries of Thought (1862), Volume I, p. 124
Misattributed

“Bread is the staff of life.”

Jonathan Swift book A Tale of a Tub

Preface
A Tale of a Tub (1704)

“Tis very warm weather when one's in bed.”

Jonathan Swift

Journal to Stella (November 8, 1710)

“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.”

Jonathan Swift

Essay on the Fates of Clergymen (1728)

“She looks as if butter wou'dn't melt in her mouth.”

Jonathan Swift

Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 1

“He is taller by almost the breadth of my nail, than any of his court, which alone is enough to strike an awe into the beholders.”

Jonathan Swift book Les Voyages de Gulliver

On the Emperor of Lilliput, in Voyage to Lilliput, Ch. 2
Gulliver's Travels (1726)

“A set of phrases learnt by rote;
A passion for a scarlet coat;
When at a play to laugh, or cry,
Yet cannot tell the reason why:
Never to hold her tongue a minute;
While all she prates has nothing in it.”

Jonathan Swift

The Furniture of a Woman's Mind (1727)

“I love good creditable acquaintance; I love to be the worst of the company.”

Jonathan Swift

Journal to Stella (May 17, 1711)

“Poor Nations are hungry, and rich Nations are proud, and Pride and Hunger will ever be at Variance.”

Jonathan Swift book Les Voyages de Gulliver

Voyage to Houyhnhnms, Ch. 5
Gulliver's Travels (1726)

“Those dreams that on the silent night intrude,
And with false flitting shapes our minds delude
… are mere productions of the brain.
And fools consult interpreters in vain.”

Jonathan Swift

On Dreams (1727)

“And he gave it for his opinion, that whosoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.”

Jonathan Swift book Les Voyages de Gulliver

Voyage to Brobdingnag, Ch. 7 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gulliver%27s_Travels/Part_II/Chapter_VII <br class="br">Gulliver's Travels (1726)