Quotes by Jonathan Swift with men

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

English writer

Lived from: 1667 - 1745

Category: Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited Kingdom

Born: 30 november 1667 Died: 19 october 1745

  • A footman may swear; but he cannot swear like a lord. He can swear as often: but can he swear with equal delicacy, propriety, and judgment?
  • Nature has left every man a capacity of being agreeable, though not of shining in company; and there are a hundred men sufficiently qualified for both who, by a very few faults, that they might correct in half an hour, are not so much as tolerable.
  • The most accomplished way of using books at present is to serve them as some do lords, learn their titles, and then boast of their acquaintance.
  • Nothing is so great an example of bad manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none; If you flatter only one or two, you offend the rest.
  • One of the very best rules of conversation is to never, say anything which any of the company wish had been left unsaid.
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Quotes 1 till 7 of 7.

  • If men of wit and genius would resolve never to complain in their works of critics and detractors, the next age would not know that they ever had any.
    ― Jonathan Swift
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  • Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.
    ― Jonathan Swift
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  • Ambition often puts Men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same position with creeping.
    ― Jonathan Swift
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  • I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.
    ― Jonathan Swift
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  • I said there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are as slaves.
    ― Jonathan Swift
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  • Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.
    ― Jonathan Swift
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  • Nature has left every man a capacity of being agreeable, though not of shining in company; and there are a hundred men sufficiently qualified for both who, by a very few faults, that they might correct in half an hour, are not so much as tolerable.
    ― Jonathan Swift
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What are the most famous quotes from Jonathan Swift?

The two most famous quotes from Jonathan Swift are:

  • "If men of wit and genius would resolve never to complain in their works of critics and detractors, the next age would not know that they ever had any."
  • "Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of."

When did Jonathan Swift live?

Jonathan Swift was born in 1667 and died in the year 1745.