Happiness is a perpetual possession of being well deceived.


Jonathan Swift

  Email Quote to Friends   Link to Quote   Create Short URL  Publish Text About This Quote   Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more
  See Recommended Quotes For You

Related

Happiness is the perpetual possession of being well deceived.
JONATHAN SWIFT
The best happiness a woman can boast is that of being most carefully deceived
GEORGE JAMES
Life is the art of being well deceived.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Jonathan Swift made a soul for the gentlemen of this city by hating his neighbor as himself.
W.B. YEATS
Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want. -Jonath...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Living in a world where people measure their happiness by self-indulgence and decadence, Is like wat...
HUSAM WAFAEI
Happiness is not a possession to be prized. It is a quality of thought, a state of mind.
DAPHNE DU MAURIER
Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind
DAPHNE DU MAURIER
Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.
DAPHNE DU MAURIER
Life is the art of being well deceived; and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habit...
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Life is the art of being well deceived; and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habit...
WILLIAM HAZLITT
They're victims of being deceived
DAVID NORTON
Happiness is a state of mental,physical and spiritual well-being. Think pleasantly,engaged sport and...
LAILAH GIFTY AKITA
In a democracy, the well-being, individuality and happiness of every citizen is important for the ov...
A. P. J. ABDUL KALAM
The pain of love is the pain of being alive. It is a perpetual wound.
MAUREEN DUFFY
The pain of love is the pain of being alive. It's a perpetual wound.
MAUREEN DUFFY
The most brilliant satire of all time was 'A Modest Proposal' by Jonathan Swift. You'll ...
P. J. O'ROURKE
The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly deceived
OSCAR WILDE
Mike Judge is my Jonathan Swift, and I say that because I don't know any other satirists. But th...
T. J. MILLER
I always think of Gilbert Norrell as being Salieri to Jonathan Strange being Mozart.
EDDIE MARSAN
It's what Jonathan Swift suggested two and a half centuries ago: making two blades of grass grow whe...
MARTIN BELL
The fear of being deceived is the vulgar version of the quest for Truth.
EMILE M. CIORAN
The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.
OSCAR WILDE
Work faithfully, and you will put yourself in possession of a glorious and enlarging happiness.
ORISON SWETT MARDEN
The pain of love is the pain of being alive. It is a perpetual wound. -Maureen Duffy.
MAUREEN DUFFY
More compassionate mind, more sense of concern for other's well-being, is source of happiness.
DALAI LAMA
A swift carriage, of a dark night, rattling with four horses over roads that one can’t see--that�...
HENRY JAMES
Happiness is not a state of being. Happiness is a vector, it is movement.
NEAL SHUSTERMAN
Mother Superior jump the gun...
-The Beatles, Happiness is a Warm Gun
LAUREN MYRACLE
Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden maybe get so boring that eating the apple was justifie...
CHUCK PALAHNIUK
Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness.
A. P. J. ABDUL KALAM
Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness.
ABDUL KALAM
Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill o...
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
I understand by this passion the union of desire, friendship, and tenderness, which is inflamed by a...
EDWARD GIBBON
I understand by this passion the union of desire, friendship, and tenderness, which is inflamed by...
EDWARD GIBBON
Happiness is the good life that is marked by flourishing well-being, joy, prosperity, peace, satisfa...
OGWO DAVID EMENIKE
it's okay to feel things. And be who you are about them.
STEPHEN CHOBOSKY
I don’t want to start thinking again. Not like I have this last week. I can’t think again. Not e...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
It's strange to describe reading a book as a really great experience, but that's kind of how it felt...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
I’m caught between trying to live my life, and trying to run from it.
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
I don't want to be somebody's crush.if somebody likes me, i want them to like the real me, not what ...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
The Desire of Man being Infinite, the possession is Infinite, and himself Infinite.
WILLIAM BLAKE
THE PROBLEM OF GOOD: WHY UNCONDITIONALLY GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO UNCONDITIONALLY BAD PEOPLE
(SEE ...
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER
Brod’s life was a slow realization that the world was not for her, and that for whatever reason, s...
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER
I have been waiting for you for so long.”
I pointed to the car. “We are searching for Trach...
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER
She was with me. She did all of those things and so many more, things I would never tell anyone, and...
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER
The ultimate end of education is happiness or a good human life, a life enriched by the possession o...
MORTIMER ADLER
Happiness is the first principle of life. Happiness basically means well-being. It is always good an...
ALEXANDRA STODDARD
The man who pursues happiness wisely will aim at the possession of a number of subsidiary interests ...
BERTRAND RUSSELL
When you watch Robin Williams, you can see a lot of Jonathan Winters. Robin is the first one to admi...
GILBERT GOTTFRIED
A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is an expression of humility. It is a foundation fo...
JAMES E. FAUST
Melancholy is the happiness of being sad.
VICTOR HUGO
Memory is the happiness of being alone.
LOIS LOWRY
He is not deceived who knows himself to be deceived
LEGAL MAXIM
Being truly happy in life involves you feeling more in control of the direction your life is going.
DEBORAH DAY
You don't have to be like anyone else. You just need to learn more about your own creative self and ...
DEBORAH DAY
Recognizing that you are not where you want to be is a starting point to begin changing your life.
DEBORAH DAY
It is not the possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, that enriches...
MAX PLANCK
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money. It lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill...
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Happiness is a state of mind and not a state of possession. Be as you are and you will be happy, if ...
APOORVE DUBEY
But what is after all the happiness of mere power? There is a greater happiness possible than to be ...
LAFCADIO HEARN
For me, fitness is not just about hitting the gym; it is also about an inner happiness and an overal...
RAKUL PREET SINGH
Happiness is being emerged in thoughts of you.
TRUTH DEVOUR
Taste is one of the five senses, and the man who tells us with priggish pride that he does not care ...
E. F. BENSON
Self-esteem is as important to our well-being as legs are to a table. It is essential for physical a...
LOUISE HART
Real love is not to desire a person but to desire their happiness—sometimes even at the expense of...
RICHARD PAUL EVANS
Our affections as well as our bodies are in perpetual flux.
JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU
Our affections as well as our bodies are in perpetual flux.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
She wasn't bitter. She was sad, though. But it was a hopeful kind of sad. The kind of sad that just ...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
So, I guess we are who we are for alot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go fr...
STEPHEN CHOBOSKY
I love my mom so much. I don't care if that's corny to say. I think on my next birthday, I'm going t...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
We Are All Infinite
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
I don’t know if I will have the time to write any more letters, because I might be too busy trying...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
You can't just sit there and put everyone's lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You ...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
I saw other people there. Old men sitting alone. Young girls with blue eye shadow and awkward jaws. ...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
That one moment when you know you are not a sad story. You are ALIVE.
STEPHAN CHBOSKY
Somos quienes somos por un montón de razones.Quizás nunca conozcamos la mayoría de ellas.Pero aun...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
Ambos dijeron que tomara asiento y parecían hablar en serio, así que me senté.
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
I know these will all be stories some day, and our pictures will become old photographs. We all beco...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
So I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybewe'll never know most of them.
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
So I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them.
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
There's nothing like the deep breathes after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore st...
STHEPHEN CHBOSKY
no more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks, when the teacher rings the bell, drop...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
I don't know the significance of this, but I find it very interesting.
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
Maybe it’s sad that these are now memories. And maybe it’s not sad.
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
Sometimes we are less unhappy in being deceived by those we love, than in being undeceived by them.
LORD BYRON
Happiness is not a goal...it's a by-product of a life well lived.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
You are doing well if you are not weary in well doing
SAJI IJIYEMI
You're not going to hold them scoreless and you won't shoot 100 percent. We did a really good job of...
CHAD WINTZ
It's bad taste to be wise all the time, like being at a perpetual funeral
D.H. LAWRENCE
To feel alone is to be alone.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER
If there is a look of human eyes that tells of perpetual loneliness, so there is also the familiar l...
ALICE MEYNELL
Perpetual optimism is good for the mind. Perpetual faith is good for the heart. Perpetual hope is go...
MATSHONA DHLIWAYO
Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore ...
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER
A doctrine serves no purpose in itself, but it is indispensable to have one if only to avoid being d...
SIMONE WEIL
A man without happiness is neither good nor well.
VIKRANT PARSAI
I have never deceived anyone, for I have never belonged to anyone. My independence was all my wealth...
CORA PEARL
Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect ...
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of...
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

More Jonathan Swift

Promises and Pye-Crusts, are made to be broken.
JONATHAN SWIFT
O Grub Street! how do I bemoan thee, whose graceless children scorn to own thee! . Yet thou hast gre...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Style may defined as the proper words in the proper places.
JONATHAN SWIFT
We have just enough religion to make us hate but not enough to make us love one another.
JONATHAN SWIFT
There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Vision: the art of seeing things invisible.
JONATHAN SWIFT
We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision.
JONATHAN SWIFT
If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a sco...
JONATHAN SWIFT
He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be pu...
JONATHAN SWIFT
If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a scou...
JONATHAN SWIFT
The latter part of a wise person's life is occupied with curing the follies, prejudices and false op...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Your notions of friendship are new to me; I believe every man is born with his quantum, and he canno...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Two friendships in two breasts requires The same aversions and desires.
JONATHAN SWIFT
I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
In the school of political projectors, I was but ill entertained, the professors appearing, in my ju...
JONATHAN SWIFT
The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance and never to keep his w...
JONATHAN SWIFT
A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.
JONATHAN SWIFT
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy ch...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches to conceive how others can be in want.
JONATHAN SWIFT
The lack of belief is a defect that ought to be concealed when it cannot be overcome.
JONATHAN SWIFT
The most positive men are the most credulous.
JONATHAN SWIFT
May you live every day of your life.
JONATHAN SWIFT
A footman may swear; but he cannot swear like a lord. He can swear as often: but can he swear with e...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Don't set your wit against a child.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Positiveness is a good quality for preachers and speakers because, whoever shares his thoughts with ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdo...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance.
JONATHAN SWIFT
The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet w...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Complaint is the largest tribute Heaven receives.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Rebukes are easy from our betters,
From men of quality and letters;
But when low dunces will ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
What some people invent the rest enlarge.
JONATHAN SWIFT
All human race would be wits. And millions miss, for one that hits.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Nothing is so great an example of bad manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you pleas...
JONATHAN SWIFT
In church your grandsire cut his throat; to do the job too long he tarried: he should have had my he...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Better belly burst than good liquor be lost.
JONATHAN SWIFT
We are so fond on one another because our ailments are the same.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation, as in books it is generally the wor...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Coffee makes us severe, and grave, and philosophical.
JONATHAN SWIFT
One of the very best rules of conversation is to never, say anything which any of the company wish h...
JONATHAN SWIFT
And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Ambition often puts Men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same positio...
JONATHAN SWIFT
The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman.
JONATHAN SWIFT
For the rest,
Whatever we have got has been by infinite labor, and search, and ranging through e...
JONATHAN SWIFT
What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not do we are told expressly.
JONATHAN SWIFT
I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning.
JONATHAN SWIFT
One enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can do good.
JONATHAN SWIFT
When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
'Tis an old maxim in the schools,
That flattery's the food of fools;
Yet now and then your men...
JONATHAN SWIFT
She wears her clothes as if they were thrown on with a pitch folk.
JONATHAN SWIFT
I will venture to affirm, that the three seasons wherein our corn has miscarried did no more contrib...
JONATHAN SWIFT
It is a maxim among these lawyers, that whatever hath been done before, may legally be done again: a...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Come, agree, the law's costly.
JONATHAN SWIFT
There's none so blind as they that won't see.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own; wh...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Brutes find out where their talents lie;
A bear will not attempt to fly,
A foundered horse w...
JONATHAN SWIFT
But when a Man
JONATHAN SWIFT
Pretense is the overrating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.
JONATHAN SWIFT
I said there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving by words ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Interest is the spur of the people, but glory that of great souls. Invention is the talent of youth,...
JONATHAN SWIFT
I wont quarrel with my bread and butter.
JONATHAN SWIFT
I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing.
JONATHAN SWIFT
It was a bold person that first ate an oyster.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Promises and pie crusts are made to be broken.
JONATHAN SWIFT
But you think that it is time for me to have done with the world, and so I would if I could get into...
JONATHAN SWIFT
She wears her clothes as if they were thrown on her with a pitchfork.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same positi...
JONATHAN SWIFT
And he gave it for his opinion, "that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
I warrant you lay abed till the cows came home.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Faith, that's as well said as if I had said it myself.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Reason is a very light rider, and easily shook off.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Nor do they trust their tongue alone, but speak a language of their own; can read a nod, a shrug, a ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.
JONATHAN SWIFT
As blushing will sometimes make a whore pass for a virtuous woman, so modesty may make a fool seem a...
JONATHAN SWIFT
How we apples swim.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Instead of dirt and poison, we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax, thus furnis...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Convey a libel in a frown. And wink a reputation down!
JONATHAN SWIFT
For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.
JONATHAN SWIFT
The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as is the best fruit which the birds have been...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Modesty may make a fool seem a man of sense.
JONATHAN SWIFT
They say fingers were made before forks, and hands before knives.
JONATHAN SWIFT
What some invent the rest enlarge.
JONATHAN SWIFT
I heard the little bird say so.
JONATHAN SWIFT
A prince, the moment he is crown'd, Inherits every virtue sound, As emblems of the sovereign p...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.
JONATHAN SWIFT
So, naturalists observe, a flea Has smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller sti...
JONATHAN SWIFT
A nice man is a man of nasty ideas.
JONATHAN SWIFT
In all distresses of our friends We first consult our private ends; While Nature, kindly bent ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
A man suffers death himself as often as he loses those dear to him.
JONATHAN SWIFT
He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be p...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Positiveness is a good quality for preachers and speakers because, whoever shares his thoughts wit...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Necessity is the mother of invention.
JONATHAN SWIFT
It is a maxim, that those to whom everybody allows the second place have an undoubted title to the ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that th...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.
JONATHAN SWIFT
It is as hard to satirize well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguishe...
JONATHAN SWIFT
We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Never sleeping, still awake, Pleasing most when most I speak; The delight of old and young, ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Bread is the staff of life.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies but which let wasps and hornets break through.
JONATHAN SWIFT
The proper words in the proper places are the true definition of style.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength....
JONATHAN SWIFT
Faith! he must make his stories shorter or change his comrades once a quarter.
JONATHAN SWIFT
When a true genius appears in this world you may know him by the sign that the dunces are all in con...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches to conceive how others can be in want.
JONATHAN SWIFT
When a true genius appears in this world you may know him by this sign, that the dines are all in co...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same posture...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.
JONATHAN SWIFT
As love without esteem is capricious and volatile; esteem without love is languid and cold.
JONATHAN SWIFT
No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from...
JONATHAN SWIFT
There is nothing constant in this world but inconsistency.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
There were many times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Books, the children of the brain.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Promises and pie-crust are made to be broken.
JONATHAN SWIFT
We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their ow...
JONATHAN SWIFT
When a great genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in c...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Under this window in stormy weather I marry this man and woman together; Let none but Him who rules ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Human brutes, like other beasts, find snares and poison in the provision of life, and are allured by...
JONATHAN SWIFT
The rolling fictions grow in strength and size, Each author adding to the former lies.
JONATHAN SWIFT
I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs.
JONATHAN SWIFT
What some invent, the rest enlarge.
JONATHAN SWIFT
No preacher is listened to but time, which gives us the same train and turn of thought that elder pe...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Whoever makes two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before, deserves ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
The latter part of a wise person's life is occupied with curing the follies, prejudices and fals...
JONATHAN SWIFT
The want of belief is a defect that ought to be concealed when it cannot be overcome.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Most sorts of diversion in men, children and other animals, are in imitation of fighting.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Principally I hate and detest that animal called man; although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
No wise man ever wished to be younger.
JONATHAN SWIFT
A college joke to cure the dumps.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Our passions are like convulsion fits, which, though they make us stronger for the time, leave us th...
JONATHAN SWIFT
He was a bold man that first eat an oyster.
JONATHAN SWIFT
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in c...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Fine words! I wonder where you stole them.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Happiness is the perpetual possession of being well deceived.
JONATHAN SWIFT
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy ch...
JONATHAN SWIFT
When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in co...
JONATHAN SWIFT
We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love, one another.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want. -Jonath...
JONATHAN SWIFT
An old miser kept a tame jackdaw, that used to steal pieces of money, and hide them in a hole, whic...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Hail, fellow, well met, All dirty and wet: Find out, if you can, Who's master, who's man...
JONATHAN SWIFT
They never would hear, But turn the deaf ear, As a matter they had no concern in.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Fine words! I wonder where you stole 'em. [Lat., Libertas et natale solum.]
JONATHAN SWIFT
Where Young must torture his invention To flatter knaves, or lose his pension.
JONATHAN SWIFT
'Tis an old maxim in the schools, That flattery's the food of fools; Yet now and then your men...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Flattery is the worst and falsest way of showing our esteem
JONATHAN SWIFT
May you live all the days of your life.
JONATHAN SWIFT
It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.
JONATHAN SWIFT
It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have...
JONATHAN SWIFT
I row after health like a waterman...
JONATHAN SWIFT
He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.
JONATHAN SWIFT
A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Vanity is a mark of humility rather than of pride.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Where I am not understood, it shall be concluded that something very useful and profound is couched ...
JONATHAN SWIFT
One of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonab...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Whoever wishes to win in this game must have patience and money, since the values are so little cons...
JONATHAN SWIFT
A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying... that he i...
JONATHAN SWIFT
The tucked-up sempstress walks hasty strides, While streams run down her oil'd umbrella's sides.
JONATHAN SWIFT
I must complain the cards are ill shuffled till I have a good hand
JONATHAN SWIFT
And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to...
JONATHAN SWIFT
I'm as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth
JONATHAN SWIFT
For the rest, whatever we have got has been by infinite labor, and search, and ranging through every...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
JONATHAN SWIFT
I cannot but conclude that the Bulk of your Natives, to be the most pernicious Race of little odious...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Every dog must have his day.
JONATHAN SWIFT
One of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonab...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Old men and comets have been reverenced for the same reason: their long beards, and pretenses to for...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Laws are best explained, interpreted and applied by those whose interest and abilities lie in perver...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Proper words in proper places make the true definition of style.
JONATHAN SWIFT
A wise man is never less alone than when he is alone
JONATHAN SWIFT
War is the child of Pride, and Pride the daughter of Riches.
JONATHAN SWIFT
I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed
JONATHAN SWIFT
Whatever the poets pretend, it is plain they give immortality to none but themselves; it is Homer an...
JONATHAN SWIFT
The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman
JONATHAN SWIFT
Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruption.
JONATHAN SWIFT
The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as is the best fruit which the birds have been...
JONATHAN SWIFT
A lie is an excuse guarded
JONATHAN SWIFT
Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.
JONATHAN SWIFT
When the belly is full, the bones would be at rest
JONATHAN SWIFT
What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not we are told expressly
JONATHAN SWIFT
Just get the right syllable in the proper place.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Words are but wind; and learning is nothing but words; ergo, learning is nothing but wind.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Argument is the worst sort of conversation.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Some men, under the notion of weeding out prejudices, eradicate virtue, honesty, and religion
JONATHAN SWIFT
Punning is an art of harmonious jingling upon words, which, passing in at the ears, excites a titill...
JONATHAN SWIFT
All fits of pleasure are balanced by an equal degree of pain or languor; it is like spending this ye...
JONATHAN SWIFT
In all distresses of our friends We first consult our private ends
JONATHAN SWIFT
It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not.
JONATHAN SWIFT
Our passions are like convulsion fits, which, though they make us stronger for the time, leave us th...
JONATHAN SWIFT
Gulliver describes a royal personage inspiring awe among the tiny Lilliputians because he was taller...
JONATHAN SWIFT
The greatest inventions were produced in the times of ignorance, as the use of the compass, gunpowde...
JONATHAN SWIFT