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
freedom slave freeman
I would rather be a freeman among slaves than a slave among freemen.
men talent figures
It is an uncontrolled truth, that no man ever made an ill figure who understood his own talents, nor a good one who mistook them.
believe lasts saws
Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe, how much it altered her person for the worse.
wall tongue ears
Walls have tongues, and hedges ears.
satire dunces
When dunces are satiric, I take it for a panegyric.
war hobbes states
Hobbes clearly proves, that every creature Lives in a state of war by nature.
deeds
You must take the will for the deed.
lying bears talent
Brutes find out where their talents lie; a bear will not attempt to fly.
men broomsticks mortals
Surely mortal man is a broomstick!
law eleven possession
Possession, they say, is eleven points of the law.
truth devil shame
Tell truth, and shame the devil.
ignorance giving together
It is very unfair in any writer to employ ignorance and malice together, because it gives his answerer double work.
men may fool
Modesty may make a fool seem a man of sense.
companion pleasant coaches
A pleasant companion is as good as a coach.