Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

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.

Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.

Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.

A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.

Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.

Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.

May you live all the days of your life.

I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning.

When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.

A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.

We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman.

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.

No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from age and experience.

He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.

Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruptions.

Words are but wind and learning is nothing but words ergo, learning is nothing but wind.

Interest is the spur of the people, but glory that of great souls. Invention is the talent of youth, and judgment of age.

Where there are large powers with little ambition... nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes.

The power of fortune is confessed only by the miserable, for the happy impute all their success to prudence or merit.