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
friendship family wisdom
Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want.
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.
friendship two feelings
Two friendships in two breasts requires The same aversions and desires.
friendship years age
What vexes me most is, that my female friends, who could bear me very well a dozen years ago, have now forsaken me, although I am not so old in proportion to them as I formerly was: which I can prove by arithmetic, for then I was double their age, which now I am not. Letter to Alexander Pope. 7 Feb. 1736.
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.
friends enemy misfortunes
Some dire misfortune to portend, no enemy can match a friend.
blades country deserves ears essential grass grew grow race service together whoever
Whoever makes two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before, deserves better of mankind, and does more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together
belly bones rest
When the belly is full, the bones would be at rest
bit food maxim men tis
Tis an old maxim in the schools, That flattery's the food of fools; Yet now and then your men of wit, Will condescend to take a bit
abroad bred company returned traveler worst
Usually speaking, the worst bred person in company is a young traveler just returned from abroad
afterwards begun continues less treatment
When the world has once begun to use us ill, it afterwards continues the same treatment with less scruple or ceremony, as men do to a whore
coffee philosophical espresso
Coffee makes us severe, and grave and philosophical.
block men want
Small causes are sufficient to make a man uneasy, when great ones are not in the way: for want of a block he will stumble at a straw.
comfort keeps man proud time
If a proud man makes me keep my distance, the comfort is that he keeps his at the same time