So Geographers in Afric-mapsWith Savage-Pictures fill their Gaps;
I was in the utmost astonishment, and roared so loud that they all ran back in a fright; and some of them, as I was afterwards told, were hurt with the falls they got by leaping from my sides upon the...
Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old.
Tis an old maxim in the schools That flattery's the food of fools - Yet now and then your men of wit Will condescend to take a bit.
That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy.
Take a strict view of their excrements, and, from the colour, the odour, the taste, the consistence, the crudeness or maturity of digestion, form a judgment of their thoughts and designs; because men...
My little friend Grildrig; you have made a most admirable panegyrick upon your country. You have clearly proved that ignorance, idleness, and vice, are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislat...
Promises and pie-crust are made to be broken.
We are so fond of each other because our ailments are the same.
Gulliver describes a royal personage inspiring awe among the tiny Lilliputians because he was taller than his brethren by the breadth of a human fingernail.
When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
I should perhaps like others have astonished you with strange improbable tales; but I rather chose to relate plain matter of fact in the simplest manner and style; because my principal design was to i...
Proper words in proper places make the true definition of a style.
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.
A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
Some time after, asking a friend at court how they came to fix on that determinate number, he told me that his majesty’s mathematicians, having taken the height of my body by the help of a quadrant, a...
He put this engine [a silver pocket watch] into our ears, which made an incessant noise, like that of a water-mill: and we conjecture it is either some unknown animal, or the god that he worships; but...
Ever eating, never cloying,All-devouring, all-destroying
A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be v...