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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.

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
Father
Falsehood
Lost
Improvement
Seems
Reputation
Great
Although
Much
Devil
Inventors
Made
Lies
Improvements
Like
Lying
Continual
Upon
Inventor

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I'm up and down and round about, Yet all the world can't find me out Though hundreds have employed their leisure, They never yet could find my measure.
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The latter part of a wise person's life is occupied with curing the follies, prejudices and false opinions they contracted earlier.
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I hate nobody: I am in charity with the world.
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It is the first rule in oratory that a man must appear such as he would persuade others to be: and that can be accomplished only by the force of his life.
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I remember it was with extreme difficulty that I could bring my master to understand the meaning of the word opinion, or how a point could be disputable because reason taught us to affirm or deny only where we are certain and beyond our knowledge we cannot do either.
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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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Whence proceeds this weight we lay On what detracting people say? Their utmost malice cannot make Your head, or tooth, or finger ache Nor spoil your shapes, distort your face, Or put one feature out of place.
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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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In oratory the greatest art is to hide art.
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I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.
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No man will take counsel, but every man will take money. Therefore, money is better than counsel.
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There is nothing constant in this world but inconsistency.
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The proper words in the proper places are the true definition of style.
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There are but three ways for a man to revenge himself of the censure of the world,--to despise it, to return the like, or to endeavor to live so as to avoid it the first of these is usually pretended, the last is almost impossible, the universal practice is for the second.
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hoever wishes to win in this game must have patience and money, since the values are so little constant and the rumors so little founded on truth Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
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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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Had Windham possessed discretion in debate, or Sheridan in conduct, they might have ruled their age.
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Where Young must torture his invention To flatter knaves, or lose his pension.
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Vanity is a mark of humility rather than of pride.
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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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