Jonathan Swift

“I cannot but conclude that 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.”

“I heartily hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, ans so forth.”

“No wise man ever wished to be younger. ”

“Proper words in proper places make the true definition of style.”

“I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.”

“Tata krama adalah seni untuk membuat orang merasa tidak canggung bercakap-cakap dengan kita.”

“It is a maxim among these lawyers, that whatever hath been done before may legally be done again: and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and the general reason of mankind. These, under the name of precedents, they produce as authorities, to justify the most iniquitous opinions; and the judges never fail of decreeing accordingly.”

“I desired that the Senate of Rome might appear before me in one large chamber, and a modern representative, in counterview, in another. The first seemed to be an assembly of heroes and demi-gods; the other, a knot of pedlars, pick-pockets, highwaymen, and bullies.”

“Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.”

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

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

“I remember it was with extreme difficulty that I could bring my master to understand the meaning of the word opinion, or how a point could be disputable; because reason taught us to affirm or deny only where we are certain; and beyond our knowledge we cannot do either.”

“I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities, and all my love is toward individuals: for instance, I hate the tribe of lawyers, but I love Counsellor Such-a-one, and Judge Such-a-one: so with physicians—I will not speak of my own trade—soldiers, English, Scotch, French, and the rest. But principally I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth. This is the system upon which I have governed myself many years, but do not tell...”

“Punning is a talent which no man affects to despise but he that is without it.”

“Some men, under the notion of weeding out prejudice, eradicate virtue, honesty and religion.”

“A soldier is a "Yahoo" hired to kill in cold blood as many of his own Species, who have never offended him, as possibly he can.”

“When a great genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."[Thoughts on Various Subjects]”

“Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.”

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

“May you live every day of your life.”

“Books, the children of the brain.”

“Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.”

“I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.”

“Every dog must have his day.”