Jonathan Swift Quotes

The best Maxim I know in this life is, to drink your Coffee when you can, and when you cannot, to be easy without it.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Best Coffee Easy Life Yourself
Vision is the Art of seeing Things invisible.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Art Invisible See Vision
There are few wild beasts more to be dreaded than a talking man having nothing to say.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Man Talk Wild
Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Fake Philosophy Truth
The various opinions of philosophers have scattered through the world as many plagues of the mind as Pandora’s box did those of the body; only with this difference, that they have not left hope at the bottom.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Body Difference Hope Opinion Philosophy
We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Enough Hate Love Oneself Religion
The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter and a scarcity of words; for whosoever is a master of language, and hath a mind full of ideas, will be apt, in speaking, to hesitate upon the choice of both.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Choice Hesitation Language Man Mindset Talk Vocabulary Woman Word
There is no vice which mankind carries to such wild extremes as that of avarice.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Carry Human Kind Man Vice Wild
Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Break Insect Law Small
For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Government Meaning Politics Reason Slavery
Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Gold Man Strength Weakness
I love good creditable acquaintance; I love to be the worst of the company.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Company Goodness Love Myself Worst
We are so fond on one another because our ailments are the same.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Element Friendship Love Praise Sick Togetherness
There were many times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Clothes Funny Head Money Myself Poor Time
Everyone desires long life, not one old age.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Age Desire Life Old Oneself
Don’t set your wit against a child.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Children One Liner
Many a truth is told in jest.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Comedy Joke One Liner Talk Truth
For to enter the palace of learning at the great gate requires an expense of time and forms, therefore men of much haste and little ceremony are content to get in by the back-door.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Content Greatness Learning Man Palace Time
Perverseness is your whole defence.
JONATHAN SWIFT

One Liner Perseverance Protection
Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Appearance Discover Face
The bulk of mankind is as well equipped for flying as thinking.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Fly Kind Man Thinking
Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Blessing Exception Innocence Power Protection
Although the devil be the father of lies, he seems, like other great inventors, to have lost much of his reputation by the continual improvements that have been made upon him.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Devil Father Greatness Himself Improvement Invention Lost Reputation
We of this age have discovered a shorter, and more prudent method to become scholars and wits, without the fatigue of reading or of thinking.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Age Discover Reading Thinking Tired
You should never be ashamed to admit you have been wrong. It only proves you are wiser today than yesterday.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Growth Shame Wisdom Wrong Yourself
If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a scoundrel.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Coward Heaven Rich Value
Cruel people are ever cowards in emergency.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Coward Cruelty People

Famous Irish Poets