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

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
Punning
Pun
Affects
Despise
Talent
Without
Men

More quotes by Jonathan Swift

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Careful observers may foretell the hour (By sure prognostics) when to dread a show'r. While rain depends, the pensive cat gives o'er Her frolics, and pursues her tail no more.
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A ridiculous passion which hath no being but in play-books and romances.
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Men of wit, learning and virtue might strike out every offensive or unbecoming passage from plays.
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It is very unfair in any writer to employ ignorance and malice together, because it gives his answerer double work.
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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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That incessant envy wherewith the common rate of mankind pursues all superior natures to their own.
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My Lawyer being practiced almost from his Cradle in defending Falsehood is quite out of his Element when he would be an Advocate for Justice, which as an Office unnatural, he always attempts with great Awkwardness if not with Ill-will.
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Conversation is but carving! Give no more to every guest Than he's able to digest.
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Pride, ill nature, and want of sense, are the three great sources of ill manners.
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Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.
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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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My father had a small Estate in Nottinghamshire I was the Third of five Sons.
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Ah, a German and a genius ! A prodigy, admit him !
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Hail, follow, well met, All dirty and wet: Find out, if you can, Who's master, who's man.
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My nose itched, and I knew I should drink wine or kiss a fool.
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Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud and pride and hunger will ever be at variance.
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A carpenter is known by his chips.
Jonathan Swift
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A tavern is a place where madness is sold by the bottle.
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You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
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In church your grandsire cut his throat to do the job too long he tarried: he should have had my hearty vote to cut his throat before he married.
Jonathan Swift