662 Quotes by Jonathan Swift

When a man of genius appears in the world, it is immediately recognized by the fact that all the blockheads join forces against him.

How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.

Where I am not understood, it shall be concluded that something very useful and profound is couched underneath.

Vision is seeing the invisible.

A little grain of the romance is no ill ingredient to preserve and exalt the dignity of human nature, without which it is apt to degenerate into everything that is sordid, vicious and low.

Those dreams that on the silent night intrude, and with false flitting shapes our minds delude ... are mere productions of the brain. And fools consult interpreters in vain.

Promises and pie-crust are made to be broken.

Patience alleviates, as impatience augments, pain; thus persons of strong will suffer less than those who give way to irritation.

My Lawyer being practiced almost from his Cradle in defending Falsehood; is quite out of his Element when he would be an Advocate for Justice, which as an Office unnatural, he always attempts with great Awkwardness if not with Ill-will.