“Laws are like Cobwebs which may catch small Flies, but let Wasps and Hornets break through.”

A Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind (1707)
Context: Laws are like Cobwebs which may catch small Flies, but let Wasps and Hornets break through. But in Oratory the greatest Art is to hide Art.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Laws are like Cobwebs which may catch small Flies, but let Wasps and Hornets break through." by Jonathan Swift?
Jonathan Swift photo
Jonathan Swift 141
Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet 1667–1745

Related quotes

James Beattie photo
Aristotle photo
Miguel de Cervantes photo

“A close mouth catches no flies.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 11.

Diogenes Laërtius photo

“Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions;… that laws were like cobwebs,—for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it were something weightier, it broke through them and was off.”

Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers

Solon, 10.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 1: The Seven Sages

“To open the window and let a wasp out of the room. Ah, is this not happiness?”

Jin Shengtan (1610–1661) Chinese writer

"Thirty-three Happy Moments"

Martin Luther photo

“The mad mob does not ask how it could be better, only that it be different. And when it then becomes worse, it must change again. Thus they get bees for flies, and at last hornets for bees.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

Whether Soldiers Can Also Be in a State of Grace (1526)

“A drop of honey can catch more flies than a gallon of gall.”

Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), p. 143 (in 1998 edition)

Robert Jordan photo

“A jealous wife is like a hornets’ nest in your mattress.”

Old saying in Randland
A Crown of Swords (15 May 1996)

Plutarch photo

“The most perfect soul, says Heraclitus, is a dry light, which flies out of the body as lightning breaks from a cloud.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Life of Romulus
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Paul Simon photo

“I shoot a thought into the future, and it flies like an arrow, through my lifetime. And beyond.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

Everything About It Is a Love Song
Song lyrics, Surprise (2006)
Context: I shoot a thought into the future, and it flies like an arrow, through my lifetime. And beyond.
If I ever come back as a tree, or a crow, or even the wind-blown dust; find me on the ancient road in the song when the wires are hushed. Hurry on and remember me, as I'll remember you. Far above the golden clouds, the darkness vibrates.
The earth is blue.
And everything about it is a love song. Everything about it.

Related topics