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
running style term
The scholars of Ireland seem not to have the least conception of style, but run on in a flat phraseology, often mingled with barbarous terms.
dog book guests
A true critic, in the perusal of a book, is like a dog at a feast, whose thoughts and stomach are wholly set upon what the guests fling away, and consequently is apt to snarl most when there are the fewest bones.
kings ministry use
Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruptions, and consequently of no use to a good king or a good ministry; for which reason Courts are so overrun with politics.
brother writing grieving
What poet would not grieve to see His brother write as well as he? But rather than they should excel, He'd wish his rivals all in Hell.
poetry lines serious
From not the gravest of Divines, Accept for once some serious Lines.
long age desire
Everyone desires long life, not one old age.
money men every-man
No man will take counsel, but every man will take money. Therefore, money is better than counsel.
friendship not-friends difficult
When we are old, our friends find it difficult to please us, and are less concerned whether we be pleased or not.
women two intimate
Two women seldom grow intimate but at the expense of a third person.
vision invisible seeing
Vision is seeing the invisible.
vanity temptation natural
Vanity is a natural object of temptation to a woman.
skills vanity vices
There is no vice or folly that requires so much nicety and skill to manage as vanity; nor any which by ill management makes so contemptible a figure.
names action fame
Exploding many things under the name of trifles is a very false proof either of wisdom or magnanimity, and a great check to virtuous actions with regard to fame.
country travel men
I used to wonder how a man of birth and spirit could endure to be wholly insignificant and obscure in a foreign country, when he might live with lustre in his own.