20 Eye-Opening Jonathan Swift Quotes that You Need to Know
Jonathan Swift (Nov. 30, 1667 — Oct. 19, 1745) was an essayist, cleric, writer and one of the most influential satirists of all time. Gulliver’s Travels is perhaps Swift’s most popular work.
Swift’s father was a famous attorney, but sadly, he died when his son was only two months old. His mother didn’t have a steady income and Swift was a sickly child, so she mostly struggled to provide for him. She decided to leave Swift in the care of his Uncle Godwin, who took care of his education.
The writer first worked as a statesman’s assistant, after receiving his bachelor’s degree. Swift’s first work was the short satire The Battle of the Books but it was published some years after it was actually written. In fact, most of his writing were published under pseudonyms, one of them being Isaac Bickerstaff.
Swift was a pioneer of satire and a gifted writer. He used humor in describing people’s weaknesses and bad habits, hoping that we’ll recognize our darker side and shun it. His specific style gave rise to a particular kind of satire that came to be known as ‘Swiftian’.
Hare are 20 eye-opening Jonathan Swift quotes that you need to know.
A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, that he is wiser today than yesterday.
A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.
Health is the greatest of all possessions.
Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.
It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.
The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as is the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at.
There is no absolute success in the world, only constant progress.
May you live every day of your life.
Words are the clothing of our thoughts.
Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall be disappointed.
When a great genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign: that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
To get angry is like to revenge yourself for the guilt of others.
The power of fortune is confessed only by the miserable, for the happy impute all their success to prudence or merit.
Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.
Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.
Simplicity, without which no human performance can arrive at perfection.
Every day is an opportunity to a make a new happy ending.
Books, the children of the brain.
Coffee makes us severe, and grave and philosophical.
