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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.

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
Belief
Hours
Lying
Often
Happens
Occasion
Done
Occasions
Work
Believed
Hour

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There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.
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Had Windham possessed discretion in debate, or Sheridan in conduct, they might have ruled their age.
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What religion is he of? Why, he is an Anythingarian.
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And he gave it for his opinion, that 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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You must take the will for the deed.
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Reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired
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There are few wild beasts more to be dreaded than a talking man having nothing to say.
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Flattery is the worst and falsest way of showing our esteem.
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Whoe'er excels in what we prize, Appears a hero in our eyes Each girl, when pleased with what is taught, Will have the teacher in her thought. . . . . A blockhead with melodious voice, In boarding-schools may have his choice.
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Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.
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Surely mortal man is a broomstick!
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A footman may swear but he cannot swear like a lord. He can swear as often: but can he swear with equal delicacy, propriety, and judgment?
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An atheist has got one point beyond the devil.
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I cannot imagine why we should be at the expense to furnish wit for succeeding ages, when the former have made no sort of provision for ours.
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Nothing is so great an example of bad manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none If you flatter only one or two, you offend the rest.
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A ridiculous passion which hath no being but in play-books and romances.
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All panegyrics are mingled with an infusion of poppy.
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Come hither, all ye empty things, Ye bubbles rais'd by breath of Kings Who float upon the tide of state, Come hither, and behold your fate. Let pride be taught by this rebuke, How very mean a thing's a Duke From all his ill-got honours flung, Turn'd to that dirt from whence he sprung.
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A forward critic often dupes us With sham quotations peri hupsos, And if we have not read Longinus, Will magisterially outshine us. Then, lest with Greek he over-run ye, Procure the book for love or money, Translated from Boileau's translation, And quote quotation on quotation.
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If a man will observe as he walks the streets, I believe he will find the merriest countenances in mourning coaches.
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