"Seamen have a custom, when they meet a whale, to fling him out an empty tub by way of amusement, to divert him from laying violent hands upon the ship."
Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. He was the author of the satirical prose novel Gulliver's Travels (1726) and the creator of the fictional island of Lilliput. He is regarded by many as the greatest satirist of the Georgian era and one of the foremost prose authors in the history of English and world literature.
"Reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired: for in the course of things, men always grow vicious before they become unbelievers; but if you would once convince the town or country profligate, by topics drawn from the view of their own quiet, reputation, health, and advantage, their infidelity would soon drop off: This I confess is no easy task, because it is almost in a literal sense, to fight with beasts."
"He is taller by almost the breadth of my nail, than any of his court, which alone is enough to strike an awe into the beholders."
"Complaint is the largest tribute heaven receives, and the sincerest part of our devotion."
"As learned commentators view In Homer more than Homer knew."
"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybodys face but their own."
"Poor Nations are hungry, and rich Nations are proud, and Pride and Hunger will ever be at Variance."