Nowadays there are few people who do not know some fragment of “Gulliver’s Travels”, especially the part that takes place in Lilliput.
This work (which in fact is much longer and refers to multiple trips by the main character) was written by Jonathan Swift, a well-known Irish writer and clergyman characterized by his satirical criticism of society.
Throughout his life, this author made multiple observations and reflections on various topics, some of which we collect in this article, in which We present a small collection of phrases by Jonathan Swift
The author expresses the need to live as we want to, getting excited and acting according to our deepest convictions and desires.
2. The best doctors in the world are: doctor diet, doctor rest and doctor joy
Phrase that reflects some of the most important elements in maintaining health and well-being.
3. When a great genius appears in the world, he can be recognized by this sign: all fools conspire against him
Swift tells us about envy towards those who stand out and the attacks on them by those who do not.
4. Nothing is constant in this world but inconstancy
This phrase reflects that everything is subject to change over time, no matter how certain it may be.
5. Books: the children of the brain
Phrase that reflects that literature is a form of intellectual and emotional expression.
6. A single enemy can do more harm than ten friends can do together.
Swift believed that those who want to harm us will go out of their way to do so and we will perceive it in a more intense way than what our loved ones usually tend to do.
7. Most of the amusements indulged in by men, children, and other animals are imitations of fighting.
The author indicates the role that aggression and fighting have in nature.
8. We have enough religion to hate each other, but not enough to love each other
Despite being religious, Swift was also critical of faith and the distorted use made of it as an element for confrontation and segregation.
9. Freedom of conscience is understood today not only as the freedom to believe what one wants, but also to be able to propagate that belief
The author indicates as well as criticizes the attempt to force the spread of beliefs.
10. Laws are like cobwebs, which catch the poor flies and let wasps and bumblebees pass through.
The author criticizes the inequity with which laws are applied, which the powerful ignore with hardly any consequences.
11. Vision is the art of seeing invisible things
Knowing how to see, knowing how to go beyond what is merely perceptible, allows us to know and appreciate what surrounds us much more as well as act accordingly.
12. It is an axiom that the one to whom everyone grants second place has undoubted merits to occupy first place.
People who stay close to the top (regardless of the area of life we are talking about) often have more than enough capabilities to reach it, sometimes even more than the person who gets first place.
13. Ambition usually leads people to carry out the vilest tasks. Therefore, to climb, the same posture is adopted as to crawl.
The author criticizes those who, out of ambition and greed, betray, step on and destroy others.
14. Most people are like pins: their heads are not the most important thing.
The author criticizes the lack of capacity for reflection that most people show, who simply let themselves go without questioning anything.
15. Blessed is he who expects nothing because he will always be satisfied
Comment that ironizes those who do not have hopes and expectations, who do not suffer disappointments but are not going to get great joy either.
16. A man should never be ashamed to admit that he has made a mistake, which is the same as saying that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
It is not bad to make mistakes, and acknowledging having done so only makes us able to accept and learn from those mistakes.
17. Everyone would like to live a long time, but no one would want to be old.
Although almost no one wants to die, we also do not want time to pass and grow old (which, on the other hand, the fact of living implies). Maintaining a young and active spirit is essential.
18. Arbitrary power is a natural temptation for a prince, as wine or women for a young man, or bribery for a judge, or greed for an old man, or vanity for a woman.
The author expresses the ease with which we can fall into temptation, ignoring any criteria. This includes the ease of the powerful to apply their power at will without regulating themselves with any moral criteria.
19. Censorship is the tribute that a man pays to the public to be eminent
Changes and the daring to break with what is established are not usually initially viewed well by the majority, with great works and discoveries having initially been censored.
20. Satire is a kind of mirror in which those who observe generally discover the faces of everyone except their own, the main reason why it is well received in the world and why so few are offended by it.
People often laugh at satire but do not realize that in many cases it also reflects their own behaviors.
21. No wise man ever wanted to be young
The author associates wisdom with experience and youth with the lack of it. The wise man is also capable of seeing that everything has its time, the time of youth being the time of experimentation that has led the wise man to be where he is.
22. Although lying is a universal practice, I do not remember having heard three good lies in my entire life, not even from those who were most celebrated for this faculty.
We all lie on occasion, but this is rarely positive and even the most gifted at it do not usually know how to maintain their lies.
23. There are many who do not know their weakness, but many others who do not know their strength
Swift proposes that people tend to either overestimate or underestimate their own abilities, not recognizing themselves enough.
24. The Stoic scheme of satisfying our needs by lowering our desires is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.
The author believes that we must strive to fulfill our goals, dreams and desires, no matter how ambitious they may seem, without settling for crumbs.
25. What some invent, the rest enlarge
This phrase tells us about the transmission of rumors and how as they pass from one person to another they tend to be exaggerated and magnified.
26. Now I am trying a very common experiment among modern authors, that is, writing about nothing.
Swift criticizes the frequent elaboration of texts and ramblings that lead to nothing, something very common even today.
27. Be careful with flattery. He is feeding you with an empty spoon.
Vanity is something that most like to be fed, but in reality it is often used as a method of manipulation without obtaining any real benefit.
28. We may observe in the republic of dogs that the whole state enjoys the most absolute peace after a plentiful meal, and that civil strife arises among them as soon as a large bone comes into the power of some chief dog, the which distributes it with a few, establishing an oligarchy or keeps it for itself, establishing a tyranny
The author criticizes the political system and the structure of the society in which he lived, with favoritism and use of power for one’s own benefit.
29. Elders and comets have been venerated for the same reason: their long beards and their claims to predict events
Age usually involves a greater number of lived experiences, which allow us to compare the past with the present and establish predictions about the future. This is what makes the experience of the elderly so valued.
30. Naturalists have observed that a flea carries other smaller fleas on its body, which in turn feed other smaller fleas. And so on to infinity
The author considers that in society we tend to take advantage of each other, so that someone takes advantage of someone but in turn others take advantage of him.
31. Do you want to lose your enemy? flatter him
Once again the author exposes the role of vanity when it comes to being manipulated.
32. Whoever walks attentively through the streets will, without a doubt, see the happiest faces in the mourning carriages
This phrase reflects the lack of joy and visible dynamism in everyday life, with the dead appearing to have greater happiness by escaping suffering.
33. The writer who wants to know how he should conduct himself in relation to posterity has only to examine in old books what he likes and what omissions he most regrets.
The author pushes us to learn from the past, and to dare to try new things to achieve new results.
34. Sir, I would like to know who was the crazy person who invented the kiss
The act of kissing is one of the most pleasant acts and one of the greatest union and intimacy between two people.
35. It was a brave man who was the first to eat an oyster
Swift expresses the bravery of being the first to do something.
36. It is impossible that a thing so natural, so necessary and so universal as death could have been destined for humanity, by providence as an evil
Human beings are usually afraid of death, but it is something natural that we must accept that it will happen to all of us sooner or later.
37. No man will accept advice, but all will accept money. From which it follows that money is worth more than advice
Criticism of the value socially given to money, as well as the difficulty in accepting advice and instructions from others.
38. I have always believed that no matter how many shots I miss… I will hit the next one.
This phrase reflects the need to not let ourselves be defeated by failures, since with perseverance we can achieve our goals.
39. As love without self-love is capricious and volatile, esteem without love is languid and cold
The author expresses the need to love oneself in order to give love to others, as well as the need to get emotionally involved with those we call love.
40. Life is a tragedy in which we attend as spectators for a while, and then we play our part in it
Jonathan Swift indicates that sooner or later we have our role in life, having attended and learned from experience.
41. The best preacher is time, which makes us come to have those same thoughts that older people tried in vain to put into our heads.
As we experience, little by little and over time we can come to understand and think like those who precede us.
42. A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart
Although the economy is a part of our lives that we have to take into account, we should not act out of economic interest but out of our convictions and values.
43. Invention is the talent of the young, as judgment is greater age
It is usually young people who have the greatest interest in experimenting, managing to find new things never seen before due to the motivation, energy, imagination and risk-taking typical of age, while as we grow we tend to achieve a greater understanding of things and evaluate more risks and benefits.
44. All moments of pleasure are balanced by an equal degree of pain or sadness
In life there are not only good or bad things, but throughout our life cycle we will experience both types of situations.
45. Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.
The main objective of power should be the protection of those it directs, trying to achieve a stable and fair world for all.
46. Leisure time is the time to do something useful.
Although it may seem like a contradiction, our free time is usually the time we make the most of and in which we do the most meaningful things for our lives.
47. If a man keeps me at a distance, I take comfort in the fact that he also keeps his distance.
Whoever distances himself from us, in turn, is preventing us from maintaining a relationship that one of the parties does not want to be maintained without us having to make any effort to avoid it.
48. Apollo, the god of medicine, used to send diseases. In the beginning the two jobs were one and it remains that way.
The author establishes a criticism against the medicine of the time.
49. Happiness is the privilege of being well deceived
The author establishes a relationship between happiness and ignorance, so that the more ignorant we are of the difficulties, obstacles and hard and painful elements of life, the more possible it is to be happy, without worrying.
50. Promises and crust of bread were made to be broken
The author considers that rules and promises do not always have to be maintained, since circumstances may change.
