"Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through."
"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."
6 likes
Source: Jonathan Swift (1860). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Copious Notes and Additions, and a Memoir of the Author”, p.513
About the author
Same author
More quotes by Jonathan Swift
"We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another."
"For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery."
"Vision is the Art of seeing Things invisible."
"That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy."
"Promises and pie-crust are made to be broken."