Nature and common reason, in all difficulties where prudence or courage are required, do rather incite us to fly for assistance to a single person than a multitude.
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Citations by Jonathan Swift
in Quotes & Aphorisms (Death)
Not die here in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole.
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Instead of inquiring whether he be a man of virtue, the question is only whether he be a whig or a tory; under which terms all good and ill qualities are included.
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in Quotes & Aphorisms (Wisdom)
It is with theories as with wells: you may see to the bottom of the deepest if there be any water there, while another shall pass for wondrous profound when 'tis merely shallow, dark, and empty.
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The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as we usually find that to be the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at.
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A law may be reasonable in itself, although a man does not allow it, or does not know the reason of the lawgivers.
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There is no vice which mankind carries to such wild extremes as that of avarice.
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Whether those who are leaders of a party arrive at that station more by a sort of instinct, or influence of the stars, than by the possession of any great abilities, may be a point of much dispute.
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A divine dares hardly show his person among the gentlemen; or, if he fall into such company, he is in continual apprehension that some pert man of pleasure should break an unmannerly jest, and render him ridiculous.
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I said the thing which was not. (For they have no word in their language to express lying or falsehood.)
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