Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swiftwas an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth30 November 1667
CountryIreland
prayer sunday journey
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.
adversity ease firsts
In all distresses of our friends We first consult our private ends; While Nature, kindly bent to ease us, Points out some circumstance to please us.
young worst company
Usually speaking, the worst-bred person in company is a young traveller just returned from abroad.
elephants maps want
So geographers, in Africa maps, With savage pictures fill their gaps, And o'er uninhabitable downs Place elephants for want of towns
science dozen biographies
If the world had but a dozen Arbuthnots I would burn my [Gulliver's] Travels.
friends believe men
Your notions of friendship are new to me; I believe every man is born with his quantum, and he cannot give to one without robbing another. I very well know to whom I would give the first place in my friendship, but they are not in the way, I am condemned to another scene, and therefore I distribute it in pennyworths to those about me, and who displease me least, and should do the same to my fellow prisoners if I were condemned to a jail.
distance men order
Dignity, high station, or great riches, are in some sort necessary to old men, in order to keep the younger at a distance, who are otherwise too apt to insult them upon the score of their age.
secret safe breasts
A secret is seldom safe in more than one breast.
strong believe army
It is in disputes as in armies, where the weaker side sets up false lights, and makes a great noise, to make the enemy believe them more numerous and strong than they really are.
worst acquaintance company
I love good creditable acquaintance; I love to be the worst of the company.
friendship two feelings
Two friendships in two breasts requires The same aversions and desires.
happiness pain years
All fits of pleasure are balanced by an equal degree of pain and languor; it's like spending this year part of next year's revenue.
life wise art
In all I wish, how happy should I be, Thou grand Deluder, were it not for thee? So weak thou art that fools thy power despise; And yet so strong, thou triumph'st o'er the wise.
past men talking
For poetry, he's past his prime, He takes an hour to find a rhyme; His fire is out, his wit decayed, His fancy sunk, his muse a jade. I'd have him throw away his pen, But there's no talking to some men.