75 Notable Quotes By Jonathan Swift, The Author Of Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Swift was an essayist, cleric, writer of political pamphlets for major political parties, author, poet and one of the most influential satirists of all time. Swift was born in an influential family and after acquiring his B. A. from Trinity College at Dublin University, he worked as the secretary of an English diplomat. However, it was as a writer and satirist that he became famous. Swift’s first work was the short satire ‘The Battle of the Books’ but it was published some years after it was actually written. Some of his most famous works were published in the early part of the 18th century and these include ‘A Modest Proposal’, ‘An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity’, ‘A Tale of a Tub’ and ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ among others. ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ is perhaps his most popular work. Swift was a pioneer of satire and his specific style gave rise to a particular kind of satire that came to be known as ‘Swiftian’. Needless to say, Swift was a man of rare gifts and his razor sharp humour shone through in the satirical works that he had done. Here are some of the best quotes from his life and works.
May you live every day of your life.
Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
When a great genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." [Thoughts on Various Subjects]
Books, the children of the brain.
We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old.
I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.
It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.
Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.
He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.
I cannot but conclude that the Bulk of your Natives, to be the most pernicious Race of little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth.
Fine words! I wonder where you stole them.
Every dog must have his day.
Proper words in proper places make the true definition of style.
Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.
No wise man ever wished to be younger.
You should never be ashamed to admit you have been wrong. It only proves you are wiser today than yesterday
The tiny Lilliputians surmise that Gulliver's watch may be his god, because it is that which, he admits, he seldom does anything without consulting.
For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.
Happiness is the perpetual possession of being well deceived.
There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.
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.
If a man makes me keep my distance, the comfort is, he keeps his at the same time.
That was excellently observed’, say I, when I read a passage in an author, where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, there I pronounce him to be mistaken.
Some men, under the notion of weeding out prejudice, eradicate virtue, honesty and religion.
Ever eating, never cloying, All-devouring, all-destroying Never finding full repast, Till I eat the world at last.
Difference in opinions has cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether the juice of a certain berry be blood or wine.
The latter part of a wise person's life is occupied with curing the follies, prejudices and false opinions they contracted earlier.
This made me reflect, how vain an attempt it is for a man to endeavor to do himself honor among those who are out of all degree of equality or comparison with him.
Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.
