Jonathan Swift Quotes

1667-1745, Anglo-Irish Satirist
quotes
75
topics
12
Origin
What do these mean?
Topic
“Come, agree, the law's costly.”
Law Suits
“Observation is an old man's memory.”
Memory
“No wise man ever wished to be younger.”
VerifiedThoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726) · evidenceAge and Aging
“May you live all the days of your life.”
Life and Living
“What some people invent the rest enlarge.”
Humor
“There's none so blind as they that won't see.”
Blindness
“The most positive men are the most credulous.”
Credulity
“Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.”
VerifiedThoughts on various subjects (Further thoughts on various subjects) (1745) · evidenceVision
“Promises and pie crusts are made to be broken.”
Promises
“It was a bold person that first ate an oyster.”
Risk
“Vanity is a mark of humility rather than of pride.”
Vanity
“Reason is a very light rider, and easily shook off.”
Reason
“I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing.”
Kisses and Kissing
“Every man desires to live long, but no man would be old.”
VerifiedThoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726) · evidenceAge and Aging
“One enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can do good.”
VerifiedJournal to Stella (30 June, 1711) · evidenceEnemies
“Happiness is a perpetual possession of being well deceived.”
Happiness
“Style may defined as the proper words in the proper places.”
Writers and Writing
“Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.”
VerifiedThoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726) · evidenceCensure
“There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.”
VerifiedThe Tatler No. 63 (September 1709) · evidenceMistakes
“We are so fond of one another, because our ailments are the same.”
VerifiedJournal to Stella (February 1, 1711) · evidenceDisease
“She wears her clothes as if they were thrown on with a pitch folk.”
Dress
“Pretense is the overrating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.”
Exaggeration
“All human race would be wits. And millions miss, for one that hits.”
Jokes and Jokers
“A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.”
Money
“Two friendships in two breasts requires The same aversions and desires.”
Friends and Friendship
“The proper words in the proper places are the true definition of style.”
Style