Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swiftwas an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth30 November 1667
CountryIreland
art people literature
Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest people uneasy is the best bred in the room.
wind understanding
Words are but wind; and learning is nothing but words; ergo, learning is nothing but wind.
prayer heaven devotion
Complaint is the largest tribute heaven receives and the sincerest part of our devotion.
wish conversation unsaid
And surely one of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid…
art animal ears
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.
wise book reading
When I am reading a book, whether wise or silly, it seems to me to be alive and talking to me.
justice decision special
It is a maxim among these lawyers, that whatever hath been done before, may legally be done again: and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and the general reason of mankind.
tongue teeth littles
I'm as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth.
pride proud poverty
Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance.
men pay literature
Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.
birthday wise time
No wise man ever wished to be younger.
wine kissing noses
My nose itched, and I knew I should drink wine or kiss a fool.
inspirational children book
Books, the children of the brain.
nurse miracle age
Religion seems to have grown an infant with age, and requires miracles to nurse it, as it had in its infancy.