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
dog rain cat
I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs.
cat watches mice
She watches him as a cat would watch a mouse.
people invention
What some people invent the rest enlarge.
favors half granted
A favor is half granted, when graciously refused.
running greed mind
When we desire or solicit anything, our minds run wholly on the good side or circumstances of it; when it is obtained, our minds run wholly on the bad ones.
sacrifice men leaving
When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.
science feet oxen
The sciences are found, like Hercules's oxen, by tracing them backward; and old sciences are unravelled like old stockings, by beginning at the foot.
reading book argument
Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation, as in books it is generally the worst sort of reading.
father conversation polite
Polite Conversation 'Tis happy for him, that his father was before him.
horse four stranger
My horses understand me tolerably well; I converse with them at least four hours every day. They are strangers to bridle or saddle; they live in great amity with me, and friendship of each other.
race missing would-be
All human race would be wits. And millions miss, for one that hits.
reason persons
You cannot reason a person out of something they were not reasoned into.
food bread eating
Bread is the staff of life.
poetry lines serious
From not the gravest of Divines, Accept for once some serious Lines.