Jonathan Swift Novelist
Gender: Male
Citizenship: Kingdom of Ireland
Born: Nov 30, 1667
Died: Oct 19, 1745
Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.
He is remembered for works such as Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, and A Tale of a Tub. Swift is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry. Swift originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, MB Drapier—or anonymously. He is also known for being a master of two styles of satire: the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.
He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.
food
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
intelligence
May you live all the days of your life.
life
Where there are large powers with little ambition... nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes.
nature
For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.
government
I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning.
morning
A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.
money
No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from age and experience.
age & experience
Words are but wind and learning is nothing but words ergo, learning is nothing but wind.
learning
Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.
art
The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman.
best & diet
The power of fortune is confessed only by the miserable, for the happy impute all their success to prudence or merit.
power & success
Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.
humor
We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
religion
Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruptions.
politics
Interest is the spur of the people, but glory that of great souls. Invention is the talent of youth, and judgment of age.
age
Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.
power
Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.
age
A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.
money
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
184 sayings regarding government
I don't know what the future may hold, but I know who holds the future.
165 other quotes relating to future
No people in history have ever survived who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies.
199 thoughts regarding freedom
It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.
199 thoughts about freedom
Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.
199 quotes about freedom
The freedom now desired by many is not freedom to do and dare but freedom from care and worry.
199 other sayings about freedom
A good photograph is knowing where to stand.
421 wisdom & wit regarding good
I have written too much history to have faith in it and if anyone thinks I'm wrong, I am inclined to agree with him.
240 views about faith
When I was about 15... I made my first attempt as a leading lady, and was, of course, a complete failure.
141 quotes regarding failure
Fear is the foundation of most governments.
270 other thoughts about fear
Health is the thing that makes you feel that now is the best time of the year.
24 quotes about fitness
If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all.
24 more quotes about fitness
To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.
240 more quotes about faith
A thick skin is a gift from God.
396 quotes about God
Our modern states are preparing for war without even knowing the future enemy.
165 wisdom & wit about future
For more than three thousand years men have quarreled concerning the formulas of their faith.
240 other wisdom & wit about faith
Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices.
199 more quotes about freedom
A tiny and closed fraternity of privileged men, elected by no one, and enjoying a monopoly sanctioned and licensed by government.
184 more thoughts regarding government
If we eat any food, or drink any beverage, we must recite a blessing over them before and after.
79 thoughts relating to food