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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

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Jonathan Swift
Age: 77 †
Born: 1667
Born: November 30
Died: 1745
Died: October 19
Essayist
Human Rights Activist
Novelist
Opinion Journalist
Pamphleteer
Philosopher
Poet
Priest
Prosaist
Public Figure
Dublin city
Isaac Bickerstaff
M. B. Drapier
Lemuel Gulliver
Simon Wagstaff
Men
Although
Weakness
Soils
Gold
Vein
Strength
Owner
Perhaps
Veins
Knowing
Accused
Literature
Owners
Sometimes
Soil

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Though fear should lend him pinions like the wind, yet swifter fate will seize him from behind.
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It is likewise to be observed that this society hath a peculiar chant and jargon of their own, that no other mortal can understand, and wherein all their laws are written, which they take special care to multiply.
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How often do we contradict the right rules of reason in the whole course of our lives! Reason itself is true and just, but the reason of every particular man is weak and wavering, perpetually swayed and turned by his interests, his passions, and his vices.
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It often happens that, if a lie be believed only for an hour, it has done its work, and there is no further occasion for it.
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An intelligent person should put money in the beginning, but not in heart
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Possession, they say, is eleven points of the law.
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An atheist has got one point beyond the devil.
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Religion seems to have grown an infant with age, and requires miracles to nurse it, as it had in its infancy.
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This is every cook's opinion - no savory dish without an onion, but lest your kissing should be spoiled your onions must be fully boiled.
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One enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can do good.
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Kitchen Physic is the best Physic.
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Perpetual aiming at wit is a very bad part of conversation. It is done to support a character: it generally fails it is a sort of insult on the company, and a restraint upon the speaker.
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If the world had but a dozen Arbuthnots in it, I would burn my Travels.
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There is no quality so contrary to any nature which one cannot affect, and put on upon occasion, in order to serve an interest.
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What vexes me most is, that my female friends, who could bear me very well a dozen years ago, have now forsaken me, although I am not so old in proportion to them as I formerly was: which I can prove by arithmetic, for then I was double their age, which now I am not. Letter to Alexander Pope. 7 Feb. 1736.
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I am convinced that if the virtuosi could once find out a world in the moon, with a passage to it, our women would wear nothing but what directly came from thence.
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Small causes are sufficient to make a man uneasy, when great ones are not in the way: for want of a block he will stumble at a straw.
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My nose itched, and I knew I should drink wine or kiss a fool.
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So geographers, in Africa maps, With savage pictures fill their gaps, And o'er uninhabitable downs Place elephants for want of towns
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