Quote#Humour & Wit
Yet malice never was his aim
Quote byJonathan Swift · 1667–1745
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift (1731), l. 459.
English (original)
Yet malice never was his aim; He lashed the vice but spared the name. No individual could resent, Where thousands equally were meant. His satire points at no defect But what all mortals may correct; For he abhorred that senseless tribe Who call it humor when they gibe.
— Jonathan Swift
More from Jonathan Swift
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.
He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.
Lord M. What religion is he of? Lord Sp. Why, he is an Anythingarian.
Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.
I mean you lie—under a mistake.
There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake, though all the World sees them to be in downright nonsense.