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
companion pleasant coaches
A pleasant companion is as good as a coach.
hands done discerning
There seems to be no part of knowledge in fewer hands than that of discerning when to have done.
wine judging temptation
Arbitrary power is the natural object of temptation to a prince, as wine and women to a young fellow, or a bribe to a judge, or avarice to old age...
revenge men understanding
Neither is it safe to count upon the weakness of any man's understanding, who is thoroughly possessed of the spirit of revenge to sharpen his invention.
passion men wavering
How often do we contradict the right rules of reason in the whole course of our lives! Reason itself is true and just, but the reason of every particular man is weak and wavering, perpetually swayed and turned by his interests, his passions, and his vices.
plato pride tubs
Though Diogenes lived in a tub, there might be, for aught I know, as much pride under his rags, as in the fine-spun garments of the divine Plato.
father book son
My father had a small Estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the Third of five Sons.
christian spiritual men
When a man is made a spiritual peer he loses his surname; when a temporal, his Christian name.
defence whole perverseness
Perverseness is your whole defence.
strong pain irritation
Patience alleviates, as impatience augments, pain; thus persons of strong will suffer less than those who give way to irritation.
romance littles ingredients
A little grain of the romance is no ill ingredient to preserve and exalt the dignity of human nature, without which it is apt to degenerate into everything that is sordid, vicious and low.
sitting standing
T is as cheap sitting as standing.
flower amusement corn
Rhetoric in serious discourses is like the flowers in corn; pleasing to those who come only for amusement, but prejudicial to him who would reap profit from it.
circles world down-and
I'm up and down and round about, Yet all the world can't find me out; Though hundreds have employed their leisure, They never yet could find my measure.