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
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.
bread quarrels bread-and-butter
I won't quarrel with my bread and butter.
poppies praise infusion
All panegyrics are mingled with an infusion of poppy.
life tragedy life-is
Life is a tragedy wherein we sit as spectators for a while and then act our part in it.
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.
littles body goodness
She has more goodness in her little finger than he has in his whole body.
kind rating pedantry
Pedantry is properly the over-rating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.
worst acquaintance company
I love good creditable acquaintance; I love to be the worst of the company.
hands knives eating
They say fingers were made before forks, and hands before knives.
beauty art height
For though, in nature, depth and height Are equally held infinite: In poetry, the height we know; 'Tis only infinite below.
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.
healthcare
I row after health like a waterman...