Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

24 quotes

Jonathan Swift is an Anglo-Irish satirist and cleric whose words have traveled far beyond their original audience. Jonathan Swift's observations on Age are as sharp as their thoughts on Religion, revealing genuine breadth of mind. Discover 28 of Jonathan Swift's most memorable quotes, ranging across Age, Religion, Power, Money, and Best. Consider this gem from Jonathan Swift: "No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from age and experience."

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

— Jonathan Swift

Age

All Quotes by Jonathan Swift

“Under this window in stormy weather I marry this man and woman together Let none but Him who rules the thunder Put this man and woman asunder.”

— Jonathan Swift

Anniversary

“He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.”

— Jonathan Swift

Food

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

— Jonathan Swift

Nature

“It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have been designed by providence as an evil to mankind.”

— Jonathan Swift

Death

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

— Jonathan Swift

Religion

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

— Jonathan Swift

Humor

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

— Jonathan Swift

Power

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

— Jonathan Swift

Money

“May you live all the days of your life.”

— Jonathan Swift

Life

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

— Jonathan Swift

Age

“I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular, but some degree of persecution.”

— Jonathan Swift

Religion

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

— Jonathan Swift

Politics

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

— Jonathan Swift

Morning

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

— Jonathan Swift

Age

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

— Jonathan Swift

Intelligence

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

— Jonathan Swift

Age

“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

Strength

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

— Jonathan Swift

Art

“Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest people uneasy is the best bred in the room.”

— Jonathan Swift

Art

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

— Jonathan Swift

Money