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This made me reflect, how vain an attempt it is for a man to endeavor to do himself honor among those who are out of all degree of equality or comparison with him.

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
Made
Endeavor
Men
Attempt
Equality
Vain
Degree
Degrees
Honor
Reflect
Among
Comparison

More quotes by Jonathan Swift

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Everybody wants to live forever, but nobody wants to grow old.
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A maxim in law has more weight in the world than an article of faith.
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I am of the level with common Astrologers who, with an old paltry cant, and a few pot-hooks for planets to amuse the vulgar, have too long been suffered to abuse the world.
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If the world had but a dozen Arbuthnots in it, I would burn my Travels.
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An atheist has got one point beyond the devil.
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We are so fond on one another because our ailments are the same.
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Just get the right syllable in the proper place.
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Principally I hate and detest that animal called man although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth.
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Every day is an opportunity to make a new happy ending. May you live all the days of your life.
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The more careless, the more modish.
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There is nothing constant in this world but inconsistency.
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The example alone of a vicious prince will corrupt an age but that of a good one will not reform it.
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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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Ah, a German and a genius ! A prodigy, admit him !
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Although the devil be the father of lies, he seems, like other great inventors, to have lost much of his reputation by the continual improvements that have been made upon him.
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So, naturalists observe, a flea Hath smaller fleas that on him prey And these have smaller fleas to bite 'em, And so proceed ad infinitum.
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A lie does not consist in the indirect position of words, but in the desire and intention, by false speaking, to deceive and injure your neighbour.
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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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Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest people uneasy is the best bred in the room.
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They say fingers were made before forks, and hands before knives.
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