Quote

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.

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
Observe
Fleas
Smaller
Proceed
Hath
Bite
Mathematics
Insects
Ads
Infinitum
Prey
Naturalists
Bites
Flea
Ems
Naturalist

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Story-telling is subject to two unavoidable defects,--frequent repetition and being soon exhausted so that, whoever values this gift in himself, has need of a good memory, and ought frequently to shift his company.
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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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Simplicity, without which no human performance can arrive at perfection.
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Hail fellow, well met.
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A ridiculous passion which hath no being but in play-books and romances.
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I have known some men possessed of good qualities which were very serviceable to others, but useless to themselves like a sun-dial on the front of a house, to inform the neighbours and passengers, but not the owner within.
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A lie is an excuse guarded
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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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If you were not reasoned into your beliefs, you cannot be reasoned out of them.
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If a man would register all his opinions upon love, politics, religion, learning etc., beginning from his youth, and so go to old age, what a bundle of inconsistencies and contradictions would appear at last.
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I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular, but some degree of persecution.
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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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What religion is he of? Why, he is an Anythingarian.
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The two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.
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Surely mortal man is a broomstick!
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No preacher is listened to but time, which gives us the same train and turn of thought that elder people have in vain tried to put into our heads before.
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The affectation of some late authors to introduce and multiply cant words is the most ruinous corruption in any language.
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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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Coffee makes us severe, and grave and philosophical.
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Had Windham possessed discretion in debate, or Sheridan in conduct, they might have ruled their age.
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