662 Quotes by Jonathan Swift

I won’t quarrel with my bread and butter.

A prince, the moment he is crown’d, Inherits every virtue sound, As emblems of the sovereign power, Like other baubles in the Tower: Is generous, valiant, just, and wise, And so continues till he dies.

Such constant irreconcilable enemies to science are the common people.

If a lie be believed only for an hour, it hath done its work.

The Houyhnhnm’s notion of truth and falsehood. The author’s discourse disapproved by his master. The author gives a more particular account of himself, and the accidents of his voyage. M.

This Day, whate’er the Fates decree; Shall still be kept with Joy by me: This Day then, let us not be told, That you are sick, and I grown old.

I durst make no return to this malicious insinuation, which debased human understanding below the sagacity of a common hound, who has judgment enough to distinguish and follow the cry of the ablest dog in the pack, without being ever mistaken.

They have a notion, that when people are met together, a short silence does much improve conversation: this I found to be true; for during those little intermissions of talk, new ideas would arise in their minds, which very much enlivened the discourse.

Desponding Phyllis was endu’d With ev’ry Talent of a Prude, She trembled when a Man drew near; Salute her, and she turn’d her Ear: If o’er against her you were plac’d She durst not look above your Waist.