"Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through."
"I will venture to affirm, that the three seasons wherein our corn has miscarried did no more contribute to our present misery, than one spoonful of water thrown upon a rat already drowned would contribute to his death; and that the present plentiful harvest, although it should be followed by a dozen ensuing, would no more restore us, than it would the rat aforesaid to put him near the fire, which might indeed warm his fur-coat, but never bring him back to life."
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Source: Jonathan Swift (1841). “The works of Jonathan Swift, containing papers not hitherto publ. With memoir of the author by T. Roscoe”, p.98
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