1720s

Explore 32 quotes from the 1720s

The body of
B. Franklin,
Printer;
Like the cover of an old Book,
Its Contents torn out,
And stript of its lettering and gilding,
Lies here, food for worms.
But the work shall not be wholly lost:
For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more,
In a new & more perfect edition,
Corrected and amended
By the Author.

Benjamin Franklin

Read more about Ben Franklin's epitaph at the National Archives website

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Topic

Afterlife

Author

Benjamin Franklin

Source

Epitaph for Himself

Medium

Epitaph

Statement Type

Epitaph Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1728 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Franklin, Benjamin. Epitaph for himself. 1728.

Current Citation

Franklin, Benjamin. "Epitaph." Benjamin Franklin: Silence Dogood, The Busy-Body and Early Writings, edited by J. A. Leo Lemay. Library of America, 2005.

Men are never so serious, thoughtful, and intent as when they are at stool.

Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels

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Topic

Mindfulness Thinking clearly

Author

Jonathan Swift

Source

Gulliver's Travels

Genre

Satire Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1726 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. London: Benjamin Motte, 1726, pt. 3, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels, edited by Albert J. Rivero. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001, pt. 3, ch. 6.

He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put into vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers.

Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels

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Topic

Research

Author

Jonathan Swift

Source

Gulliver's Travels

Genre

Satire Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1726 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. London: Benjamin Motte, 1726, pt. 3, ch. 5.

Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels, edited by Albert J. Rivero. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001, pt. 3, ch. 5.

I said there was a society of men among us bred up from their youth in the art of proving by words multiplied for the purpose that white is black and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are slaves.

Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels

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Topic

Lawyers

Speaker

On lawyers.

Author

Jonathan Swift

Source

Gulliver's Travels

Genre

Satire Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1726 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. London: Benjamin Motte, 1726, pt. 4, ch. 5.

Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels, edited by Albert J. Rivero. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001, pt. 4, ch. 5.

Every man desires to live long; but no man would be old.

Jonathan Swift

Read Thoughts on Various Subjects at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Long life Old age Aging

Author

Jonathan Swift

Source

Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting

Medium

Essay

Genre

Satire

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

1727 1720s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Swift, Jonathan. "Thoughts on Various Subjects." Miscellanies in Prose and Verse. 2nd ed, Vol. 1, London: Sam Fairbrother, 1727.

Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. "Thoughts on Various Subjects (1711)." Jonathan Swift: The Essential Writings, edited by Claude Rawson and Ian Higgins. W. W. Norton & Company, 2009.

Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style.

Jonathan Swift

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Topic

Good writing Writing

Author

Jonathan Swift

Language

English

Time

1720 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Letter to a Young Clergyman Lately Entered into Holy Orders. 9 Jan. 1720.

Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. "Letter to a Young Clergyman Lately Entered into Holy Orders (1720)." A Modest Proposal and Other Writings, edited by Carole Fabricant. Penguin, 2009.

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

Alexander Pope

Read this letter at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Low expectations Expectations Disappointment

Author

Alexander Pope

Source

Letters of Alexander Pope

Medium

Letter

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

1727 1720s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Pope, Alexander. Letter to John Gay. 6 Oct. 1727.

Current Citation

Pope, Alexander. "To Gay, Twickenham, Oct. 16, 1727." Alexander Pope: Selected Letters, edited by Howard Erksine-Hill. Oxford University Press, 2000, no. 16.

They will never allow that a child is under any obligation to his father for begetting him, or his mother for bringing him into the world - which, considering the miseries of human life, was neither a benefit in itself nor intended so by his parents, whose thoughts in their love encounters were otherwise employed.

Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels

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Topic

Parents and children

Author

Jonathan Swift

Source

Gulliver's Travels

Genre

Satire Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1726 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. London: Benjamin Motte, 1726, pt. 1, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels, edited by Albert J. Rivero. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001, pt. 1, ch. 6.

When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.

Jonathan Swift

Read Thoughts on Various Subjects at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Genius Being misunderstood

Author

Jonathan Swift

Source

Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting

Medium

Essay

Genre

Satire

Language

English

Time

1711 1720s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Swift, Jonathan. "Various Thoughts, Moral and Diverting." Miscellanies in Prose and Verse. 1st ed. London: John Morphew, 1711.

Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. "Thoughts on Various Subjects (1711)." Jonathan Swift: The Essential Writings, edited by Claude Rawson and Ian Higgins. W. W. Norton & Company, 2009.

Vice came in always at the door of necessity, not at the door of inclination.

Daniel Defoe

Moll Flanders

More information about this quote

Topic

Vice Moral theory Morality

Author

Daniel Defoe

Source

Moll Flanders

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1722 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Defoe, Daniel, [published anonymously]. Moll Flanders. London: William Rufus Chetwood, 1722.

Current Citation

Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders: A Norton Critical Edition, edited by Albert J. Rivero. W.W. Norton & Company, 2003.

Whoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before would deserve better of mankind and do more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together.

Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels

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Topic

Politicians

Author

Jonathan Swift

Source

Gulliver's Travels

Genre

Satire Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1726 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. London: Benjamin Motte, 1726, pt. 2, ch. 7.

Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels, edited by Albert J. Rivero. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001, pt. 2, ch. 7.

He who tells a lie, is not sensible how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.

Alexander Pope

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Topic

Consequences of lying Lying Lies Liars

Author

Alexander Pope

Source

Thoughts on Various Subjects

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1727 1720s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Pope, Alexander. "Thoughts on Various Subjects." Swifts's Miscellanies. London, 1727, no. 31.

See, Winter comes to rule the varied year,
Sullen and sad.

James Thomson

The Seasons: Winter

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Topic

Winter Seasons

Author

James Thomson

Source

The Seasons: Winter

Language

English

Time

1726 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Thomson, James. Winter. London: John Millan, 1726.

What's not destroyed by Time's devouring hand?
Where's Troy, and where's the May-pole in the Strand?

James Bramston

More information about this quote

Topic

Effects of time Time Impermanence

Author

James Bramston

Source

The Art of Politics

Medium

Poem

Genre

Political literature

Statement Type

Question

Language

English

Time

1729 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Bramston, James. The Art of Politics. London: Lawton Gilliver, 1729.

Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot.

James Thomson

More information about this quote

Topic

Teaching

Author

James Thomson

Source

Spring (Thomson)

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1728 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Thomson, James. Spring. London: Andrew Millar, 1728.

That action is best, which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers.

Francis Hutcheson

An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue

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Topic

Utilitarianism Moral theory Morality

Author

Francis Hutcheson

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Precepts and axioms

Language

English

Time

1725 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hutcheson, Francis. An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue. London: J. Darby, 1726, treatise 2, sect. 3, subsect. 8.

Current Citation

Hutcheson, Francis. An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, edited by Wolfgang Leidhold. Liberty Fund, 2008.

I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities, and all my love is towards individuals...I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth.

Jonathan Swift

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Topic

Individual vs. the collective

Author

Jonathan Swift

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1725 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Letter to Alexander Pope. 29 Sept. 1725.

Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. "Swift to Alexander Pope, 29 September 1725." The Major Works, edited by Angus Ross and David Woolley. Oxford University Press, 2008.

The pleasure of talking is the inextinguishable passion of woman.

Alain René Lesage 

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Topic

Women Talking too much

Author

Alain René Lesage 

Source

Gil Blas

Medium

Novel

Genre

Picaresque

Language

French

Time

1724 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Lesage, Alain-Rene. L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane [History of Gil Blas de Santillane]. Paris: Pierre Ribou, 1724, bk. 7, ch. 7.

If triangles were to make to themselves gods, they would give them three sides.

Montesquieu

Persian Letters

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Topic

Nature of God God and man God

Author

Montesquieu

Source

Persian Letters

Medium

Novel

Genre

Epistolary novel

Language

French

Time

1721 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Montesquieu. Rica to Uzbek. 14th of the moon of Saphar, 1714.

I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.

Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels

More information about this quote

Author

Jonathan Swift

Source

Gulliver's Travels

Genre

Travel writing Satire

Statement Type

Insult

Language

English

Time

1726 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. London: Benjamin Motte, 1726, pt. 2, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels, edited by Albert J. Rivero. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001, pt. 2, ch. 6.