Literary Birthday - Jonathan Swift, 30 November

Happy Birthday, Jonathan Swift, born 30 November 1667, died 19 October 1745

Jonathan Swift: 10 Quotes

1. Books, the children of the brain.
2. Just get the right syllable in the proper place.
3. Whatever the poets pretend, it is plain they give immortality to none but themselves; it is Homer and Virgil we reverence and admire, not Achilles and Aeneas.
4. Men are contented to be laughed at for their wit, but not for their folly.
5. Coffee makes us severe, and grave and philosophical.
6. There is nothing constant in this world but inconsistency. 
7. The proper words in the proper places are the true definition of style. 
8. May you live every day of your life.
9. ‘That was excellently observed,’ say I, when I read a passage in an author, where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, there I pronounce him to be mistaken.
10. Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.

Swift is known as one of the finest English satirists. The fatherless Irish author and clergyman grew up under the care of his uncle. He received a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College, and became dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. Most of his writings were published under pseudonyms. He is best known for his book Gulliver’s Travels.

From Writers Write