"Nothing more unqualified the man to act with prudence than a misfortune that is attended with shame and guilt."
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Quote collection
Jonathan Swift quotes (page 12 of 22)
433 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"By candle-light nobody would have taken you for above five-and-twenty."
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"Once kick the world, and the world and you will live together at a reasonably good understanding."
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"Conscience signifies that knowledge which a man hath of his own thoughts and actions; and because, if a man judgeth fairly of his actions by comparing them with the law of God, his mind will approve or condemn him; this knowledge or conscience may be both an accuser and a judge."
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"In all assemblies, though you wedge them ever so close, we may observe this peculiar property, that over their heads there is room enough; but how to reach it is the difficult point. To this end the philosopher's way in all ages has been by erecting certain edifices in the air."
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"Faith, that's as well said as if I had said it myself."
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"Old sciences are unraveled like old stockings, by beginning at the foot."
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"To acknowledge you were wrong yesterday is simply to let the world know that you are wiser today than you were then."
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"Imaginary evils soon become real ones by indulging our reflections on them; as he who in a melancholy fancy sees something like a face on the wall or the wainscot can, by two or three touches with a lead pencil, make it look visible, and agreeing with what he fancied."
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"It is with wits as with razors, which are never so apt to cut those they are employed on as when they have lost their edge."
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"In all I wish, how happy should I be, Thou grand Deluder, were it not for thee? So weak thou art that fools thy power despise; And yet so strong, thou triumph'st o'er the wise."
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"He that calls a man ungrateful sums up all the veil that a man can be guilty of."
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"We have an intuitive sense of our duty."
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"By the laws of God, of nature, of nations, and of your country you are and ought to be as free a people as your brethren in England."
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"Punning is a talent which no man affects to despise but he that is without it."
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"All Pretences of foretelling by Astrology, are Deceits; for this manifest Reason, because the Wise and Learned, who can only judge whether there be any Truth in this Science, do all unanimously agree to laugh at and despise it; and none but the poor ignorant Vulgar give it any Credit."
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"In like manner, the disbelief of a Divine Providence renders a man uncapable of holding any public station; for, since kings avow themselves to be the deputies of Providence."
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"It may pass for a maxim in State, that the administration cannot be placed in too few hands, nor the legislature in too many."
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"Lord, Madame, I have fed like a farmer; I shall grow as fat as a porpoise."
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"You must take the will for the deed."
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