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
balanced degree equal fits next pain pleasure spending year
All fits of pleasure are balanced by an equal degree of pain or languor; it is like spending this year part of the next year's revenues
wisdom pain hunting
Wisdom is a fox who, after long hunting, will at last cost you the pains to dig out; it is a cheese, which, by how much the richer, has the thicker, the homlier, and the coarser coat; and whereof to a judicious palate, the maggots are best. It is a sack posset, wherein the deeper you go, you'll find it the sweeter. Wisdom is a hen, whose cackling we must value and consider, because it is attended with an egg. But lastly, it is a nut, which, unless you choose with judgment, may cost you a tooth, and pay you with nothing but a worm.
strong pain irritation
Patience alleviates, as impatience augments, pain; thus persons of strong will suffer less than those who give way to irritation.
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.
greatness painful neighbor
Great abilities, when employed as God directs, do but make the owners of them greater and more painful servants to their neighbors.
love sweet pain
Love why do we one passion call, When 'tis a compound of them all? Where hot and cold, where sharp and sweet, In all their equipages meet; Where pleasures mix'd with pains appear, Sorrow with joy, and hope with fear.
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