662 Quotes by Jonathan Swift

Whoe'er excels in what we prize, Appears a hero in our eyes; Each girl, when pleased with what is taught, Will have the teacher in her thought. . . . . A blockhead with melodious voice, In boarding-schools may have his choice.

Not die here in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole.

Censure is the the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent

For though, in nature, depth and height Are equally held infinite: In poetry, the height we know; 'Tis only infinite below.

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.

Tis nothing when you are used to it.

I have almost done with harridans, and shall soon become old enough to fall in love with girls of fourteen

She has more goodness in her little finger than he has in his whole body.

A jargon form'd from the lost language, wit, Confounded in that Babel of the pit; Form'd by diseased conceptions, weak and wild, Sick lust of souls, and an abortive child; Born between whores and fops, by lewd compacts, Before the play, or else between the acts; Nor wonder, if from such polluted minds Should spring such short and transitory kinds.