When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
en
Pensées
Variante: Quand un vrai génie apparaît en ce bas monde, on peut le reconnaitre à ce signe que les imbéciles sont tous ligués contre lui.
Source: Litt. cancres.
Source: Litt. conspiration.
Jonathan Swift: 147 citations0 J'aime
Jonathan Swift citations célèbres
Jonathan Swift livre Les Voyages de Gulliver
But he may please to consider, that the caprices of womankind are not limited to any climate or nation, and that they are much more uniform than can be easily imagined.
en
Les Voyages de Gulliver, 1726
Jonathan Swift livre Les Voyages de Gulliver
You have clearly proved, that ignorance, idleness, and vice, are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator; that laws are best explained, interpreted, and applied, by those whose interest and abilities lie in perverting, confounding, and eluding them.
en
Les Voyages de Gulliver, 1726
Jonathan Swift: Citations en anglais
Imitation of Horace, book ii. Sat. 6.; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
“You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come;
Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.”
On a Dull Writer, reported in John Hawkesworth, The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin (1754), p. 265. Alternately attributed to Alexander Pope by Bartlett's Quotations, 10th Edition (1919). Compare: "His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock, it never is at home", William Cowper, Conversation, line 303
Disputed
“She pays him in his own coin.”
Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 3
“As love without esteem is volatile and capricious; esteem without love is languid and cold.”
John Hawkesworth, The Adventurer, No. 36 (10 March, 1753)
Misattributed
“…one enemy can do more hurt, than ten friends can do good.”
Journal to Stella (30 June, 1711)
Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 3
“Invention is the talent of youth, and judgment of age…”
Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
Jonathan Swift livre A Tale of a Tub
Preface
A Tale of a Tub (1704)
“I hate nobody: I am in charity with the world.”
Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 1
Jonathan Swift livre The Battle of the Books
The Battle of the Books, preface (1704)
“I'll give you leave to call me anything, if you don't call me "spade."”
Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 2
Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
“She's no chicken; she's on the wrong side of thirty, if she be a day.”
Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 1
“I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs.”
Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 2
“There is none so blind as they that won't see.”
Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 3
Jonathan Swift livre A Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding
A Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding (1754, published posthumously)
Jonathan Swift livre A Tale of a Tub
A Tale of a Tub (1704)
“Fingers were made before forks, and hands before knives.”
Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 2
“T is happy for him that his father was before him.”
Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 3
“The Bulk of mankind is as well equipped for flying as thinking.”
Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
Jonathan Swift livre Les Voyages de Gulliver
Voyage to Laputa, Ch. 5
Gulliver's Travels (1726)
Jonathan Swift livre A Tale of a Tub
Preface
A Tale of a Tub (1704)
“Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.”
Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
Jonathan Swift livre Cadenus and Vanessa
Cadenus and Vanessa (1713)
Jonathan Swift livre A Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding
A Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding
Conversation
“He made it a part of his religion never to say grace to his meat.”
Jonathan Swift livre A Tale of a Tub
Sect. 11
A Tale of a Tub (1704)
