Quotes from Jonathan Swift

La palabra que yo traduzco por la isla volante o flotante es en el idioma original laputa, de la cual no he podido saber nunca la verdadera etimología. Lap, en el lenguaje antiguo fuera de uso, significa alto, y untuh, piloto; de donde dicen que, por corrupción, se deriva laputa, de lapuntuh.

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, and finding it to exceed theirs in the proportion of twelve to one, they concluded from the similarity of their bodies, that mine must contain at least 1724 of theirs, and consequently would require as much food as was necessary to support that number of Lilliputians. By

Este Sr. Nádegas, pai destes três, era um homem bem reputado, apesar de certos maliciosos afirmarem que ele tinha o hábito intestino de jogar fast and loose; e às vezes agoniava-se, o que se atribuía a ter sido mordido por uma tarântula. Tocar gaita-de-foles, de alguma forma, aliviava-o.

the caprices of womankind are not limited by any climate or nation, and that they are much more uniform, than can be easily imagined.

It is a melancholy object to walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and all importuning every passenger for an alms.

He leaves his wife to manage the inn; and as she is a woman of color, a pair of old bachelors like you and I may be excused for guessing that it is the wife, quite as much as the health, that sends him back to roving J.

I swam as fortune directed me, and

Herkes uzun yaÅŸamak ister ama kimse yaÅŸlanmak istemez.

He then desired to know, "What arts were practised in electing those whom I called commoners: whether a stranger, with a strong purse, might not influence the vulgar voters to choose him before their own landlord, or the most considerable gentleman in the neighbourhood?

os nossos historiógrafos, há seis mil luas, não fazem referência a outras regiões senão aos dois grandes impérios de Lilipute e de Blefuscu. Estas duas poderosas potências têm, como ia dizendo, andado empenhadas, durante trinta e seis luas, numa guerra

I rather take this quality to spring from a very common infirmity of human nature, inclining us to be most curious and conceited in matters where we have least concern, and for which we are least adapted by study or nature.

Neither are any wars so furious and bloody, or of so long continuance, as those occasioned by difference in opinion, especially if it be in things indifferent.

In like manner, the disbelief of a Divine Providence renders a man incapable of holding any public station; for

La mayoría de las personas son como alfileres: sus cabezas no son lo más importante

Thus the young ladies are as much ashamed of being cowards and fools as the men, and despise all personal ornaments, beyond decency and cleanliness: neither did I perceive any difference in their education made by their difference of sex, only that the exercises of the females were not altogether so robust; and

We have no better materials to compound the priesthood of, than the mass of mankind, which corrupted as it is, those who receive orders must have some vices to leave behind them when they enter into the Church, and if a few do still adhere, it is no wonder, but rather a great one that they are no worse. Therefore

Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it; so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale has had its effect: like a man, who has thought of a good repartee, when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who has found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.

girt round my neck, my hands, my body, and my legs.

He said, he knew no reason why those who entertain opinions prejudicial to the public should be obliged to change, or should not be obliged to conceal them. And as it was tyranny in any government to require the first, so it was weakness not to enforce the second: for a man may be allowed to keep poisons in his closet, but not to vend them about for cordials.

But as human happiness is of a very short duration, so in those days were human fashions upon which it entirely depends.

he knew no reason why those, who entertain opinions prejudicial to the public, should be obliged to change, or should not be obliged to conceal them. And as it was tyranny in any government to require the first, so it was weakness not to enforce the second: for a man may be allowed to keep poisons in his closet, but not to vend them about for cordials.

while the whole operation

The author's economy, and happy life, among the Houyhnhnms. His great improvement in virtue by conversing with them. Their conversations. The author has notice given him by his master, that he must depart from the country. He falls into a swoon for grief; but submits. He contrives and finishes a canoe by the help of a fellow-servant, and puts to sea at a venture. I

Books, like men their authors, have no more than one way of coming into the world, but there are ten thousand to go out of it and return no more.