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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.

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Current Citation

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

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Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.

Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting

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Swift, Jonathan. "Thoughts on Various Subjects." Miscellanies. Vol. 11, London: C. Hitch, C. Davis, R. Dodsley and W. Bowyer, 1751.

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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.

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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.

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Current Citation

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

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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.

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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.

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Current Citation

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

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

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

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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.

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There’s none so blind as they that won’t see.

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Swift, Johnathan. "Dialogue III." Polite Conversation. London: Charles Wittinham & Co., 1738.

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Swift, Jonathan. "Polite Conversation." Parodies, Hoaxes, Mock Treatises: Polite Conversation, Directions Servants and Other Works, edited by Valerie Rumbold. Cambridge University Press, 2013, no. 3.

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

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

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Current Citation

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

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

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Original Citation

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Current Citation

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

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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.

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

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

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He was a bold Man that first eat an oyster.

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Swift, Johnathan. "Dialogue III." Polite Conversation. London: Charles Wittinham & Co., 1738.

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Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. "Polite Conversation." Parodies, Hoaxes, Mock Treatises: Polite Conversation, Directions Servants and Other Works, edited by Valerie Rumbold. Cambridge University Press, 2013, no. 2.

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There is nothing in this World constant, but Inconstancy.

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Swift, Jonathan. A Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind. London: John Morphew, 1711.

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Swift, Jonathan. "A Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind." Parodies, Hoaxes, Mock Treatises: Polite Conversation, Directions Servants and Other Works, edited by Valerie Rumbold. Cambridge University Press, 2013.

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Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.

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Swift, Jonathan. The Battle of the Books. London: John Nutt, 1704, preface.

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Swift, Jonathan. "The Preface of the Author." A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works. Dover Publications, 1996.

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Laws are like Cobwebs, which may catch small Flies, but let Wasps and Hornets break through.

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Swift, Jonathan. A Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind. London: John Morphew, 1711.

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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.

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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.

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Current Citation

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

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It is the Folly of too many, to mistake the Eccho of a London Coffee-house for the Voice of the Kingdom.

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Swift, Jonathan. The Conduct of the Allies and of the Late Ministry in Beginning and Carrying on the Present War. London: John Morphew, 1711.

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Swift, Jonathan. "The Conduct of the Allies and of the Late Ministry in Beginning and Carrying on the Present War." Jonathan Swift: Major Works, edited by Angus Ross and David Woolley. Oxford University Press, 2008.

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Old men and comets have been reverenced for the same reason: their long beards, and pretences to foretell events.

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Swift, Jonathan. "Thoughts on Various Subjects." Miscellanies. London: John Morphew, 1727.

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

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The Stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.