"He was a fiddler, and consequently a rogue."
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Quote collection
Jonathan Swift quotes (page 10 of 22)
433 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I have known some men possessed of good qualities which were very serviceable to others, but useless to themselves; like a sun-dial on the front of a house, to inform the neighbours and passengers, but not the owner within."
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"It is not so much the being exempt from faults as the having overcome them that is an advantage to us; it being with the follies of the mind as with weeds of a field, which if destroyed and consumed upon the place where they grow, enrich and improve it more than if none had ever sprung there."
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"Brutes find out where their talents lie; A bear will not attempt to fly, A foundered horse will oft debate Before he tries a five barred gate. A dog by instinct turns aside Who sees the ditch too deep and wide, But man we find the only creature Who, led by folly, combats nature; Who, when she loudly cries-Forbear! With obstinacy fixes there; And where the genius least inclines, Absurdly bends his whole designs."
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"But you think that it is time for me to have done with the world, and so I would if I could get into a better before I was called into the best, and not die here in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole."
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"Punning is an art of harmonious jingling upon words, which, passing in at the ears, excites a titillary motion in those parts; and this, being conveyed by the animal spirits into the muscles of the face, raises the cockles of the heart."
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"Bachelor's fare: bread and cheese, and kisses."
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"Although the devil be the father of lies, he seems, like other great inventors, to have lost much of his reputation by the continual improvements that have been made upon him."
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"Very few men, properly speaking, live at present, but are providing to live another time."
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"It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not."
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"There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake."
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"There is nothing in this world constant, but inconstancy."
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"When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings."
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"In all distresses of our friends We first consult our private ends; While Nature, kindly bent to ease us, Points out some circumstance to please us."
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"You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."
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"I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs."
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"Men of wit, learning and virtue might strike out every offensive or unbecoming passage from plays."
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"Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy, is the best bred man in company."
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"Whence proceeds this weight we lay On what detracting people say? Their utmost malice cannot make Your head, or tooth, or finger ache; Nor spoil your shapes, distort your face, Or put one feature out of place."
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"It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end."
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