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
poetry lines serious
From not the gravest of Divines, Accept for once some serious Lines.
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.
talking thinker talkers
Brisk talkers are generally slow thinkers.
spiders suspense miserable
It is a miserable thing to live in suspense; it is the life of the spider.
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.
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.
long age desire
Everyone desires long life, not one old age.
daughter praise
Praise is the daughter of present power.
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.
age succeed imagine
I cannot imagine why we should be at the expense to furnish wit for succeeding ages, when the former have made no sort of provision for ours.
vanity temptation natural
Vanity is a natural object of temptation to a woman.
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.