Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. May his quotes inspire you to be a person of success.
1. “A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.” Jonathan Swift
2. “It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into” Jonathan Swift
3. “May you live every day of your life.” Jonathan Swift
4. “The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as is the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at.” Jonathan Swift
5. “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall be disappointed.” Jonathan Swift
6. “When a great genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign: that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.” Jonathan Swift
7. “A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, that he is wiser today than yesterday..” Jonathan Swift
8. “The proper words in the proper places are the true definition of style.” Jonathan Swift
9. “Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.” Jonathan Swift
10. “Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.” Jonathan Swift
11. “To get angry is like to revenge yourself for the guilt of others.” Jonathan Swift
12. “Books, the children of the brain.” Jonathan Swift
13. “When I am reading a book, whether wise or silly, it seems to me to be alive and talking to me.” Jonathan Swift
14. “Some men, under the notion of weeding out prejudices, eradicate virtue, honesty, and religion.” Jonathan Swift
15. “Health is the greatest of all possessions.” Jonathan Swift
16. “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.” Jonathan Swift
17. “The power of fortune is confessed only by the miserable, for the happy impute all their success to prudence or merit.” Jonathan Swift
18. “There’s none so blind as they won’t see.” Jonathan Swift
19. “Simplicity, without which no human performance can arrive at perfection.” Jonathan Swift
20. “There is no absolute success in the world, only constant progress.” Jonathan Swift
21. “We are so fond of one another because our ailments are the same.” Jonathan Swift
22. “Observation is an old man’s memory.” Jonathan Swift
23. “Positiveness is a good quality for preachers and speakers.” Jonathan Swift
24. “Every day is an opportunity to a make a new happy ending.” Jonathan Swift
25. “The two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.” Jonathan Swift
26. “I row after health like a waterman.” Jonathan Swift
27. “Brisk talkers are generally slow thinkers.” Jonathan Swift
28. “Every man desires to live long.” Jonathan Swift
29. “He was a bold man.” Jonathan Swift
30. “Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” Jonathan Swift
