Jonathan Swift

Born 30 November 1667 · Died 19 October 1745

From Dublin, Dublin City, Ireland · Nationality: Kingdom of Ireland · Writes fiction and nonfiction

Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet and cleric who became Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. He is remembered for works such as Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, and A Tale of a Tub.

Quotes

“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.”
The Battle of the Books, preface 1704
“Instead of dirt and poison we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax; thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.”
The Battle of the Books, preface 1704
“There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake, though all the World sees them to be in downright nonsense.”
The Tatler No. 63 September 1709
‘Tis very warm weather when one’s in bed.
Journal to Stella November 8, 1710
“We are so fond of one another, because our ailments are the same.”
Journal to Stella February 1, 1711