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
jobs cutting should-have
In church your grandsire cut his throat; to do the job too long he tarried: he should have had my hearty vote to cut his throat before he married.
cutting men yield
When you set about your composing, it may be necessary for your ease, and better distillation of wit, to put on your worst clothes, and the worse the better; for an author, like a limbeck, will yield the better for having a rag about him: besides that, I have observed a gardener cut the outward rind of a tree (which is the surtout of it) to make it bear well; and this is a natural account of the usual poverty of poets, and is an argument why wits, of all men living, ought to be ill clad.
money cutting shoes
The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.
cutting razors lost
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.
ate bold risk
It was a bold person that first ate an oyster.
knowledge pretend pretense
Pretense is the overrating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.
places proper true words
Proper words in proper places make the true definiton of style.
definition places proper true words
Proper words in proper places make the true definition of style.
broken promises
Promises and Pye-Crusts - are made to be broken
ad bite flea fleas hath proceed smaller
So, naturalists observe, a flea - Hath smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller still to bite 'em; And so proceed ad infinitum
art seeing vision
Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
child daughter pride war
War is the child of Pride, and Pride the daughter of Riches.
blades country deserves ears essential grass grew grow race service together whoever
Whoever makes two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before, deserves better of mankind, and does more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together
belly bones rest
When the belly is full, the bones would be at rest