Geburtstag: 30. November 1667
Todesdatum: 19. Oktober 1745
Jonathan Swift war ein anglo-irischer Schriftsteller und Satiriker der frühen Aufklärung. Er hat auch unter folgenden Pseudonymen geschrieben: Isaac Bickerstaff, A Dissenter, A Person of Quality, A Person of Honour, M.B. Drapier, T.R.D.J.S.D.O.P.I.I. .
— Jonathan Swift
Gedanken über verschiedene Gegenstände / Thoughts on Various Subjects
Original engl.: "Very few men, properly speaking, live at present, but are providing to live another time."
— Jonathan Swift
Gedanken über verschiedene Gegenstände / Thoughts on Various Subjects
Original engl.: "We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another."
— Jonathan Swift
Polite Conversation
Original engl.: "The best doctors in the world are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet and Dr. Merryman."
— Jonathan Swift
A Critical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind (1707)
Original engl.: "Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through."
— Jonathan Swift
Tagebuch für Stella
(Original englisch: "I love good creditable acquaintance: I love to be the worst of the company: [I am not of those that say, 'For want of company, welcome trumpery]." - The Journal to Stella. Letters 23. Chelsea, May 12, 1711. No. 17 p. 119
— Jonathan Swift
Gedanken über verschiedene Gegenstände / Thoughts on Various Subjects
Original engl.: "Every man desires to live long; but no man would be old." - p. 188 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page%3AThe_Battle_of_the_Books%2C_and_Other_Short_Pieces.djvu/193
— Jonathan Swift
Ein Tonnenmärchen, Dritte Abteilung. Eine Abschweifung, hinsichtlich der Kritiker
Original engl.: "Lastly, a true critic in the perusal of a book is like a dog at a feast, whose thoughts and stomach are wholly set upon what the guests fling away, and consequently is apt to snarl most when there are the fewest bones." - A Tale of a Tub. 10th edition London 1751. Sec. III: A Disgession concerning Critics. p. 63 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=q1FOAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA63
— Jonathan Swift
Gedanken über verschiedene Gegenstände / Thoughts on Various Subjects
Original engl.: "The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes."
— Jonathan Swift, Gullivers Reisen
Gullivers Reisen. Teil 2: Reise nach Brobdingnag, Kapitel 7, gutenberg.spiegel.de http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/gullivers-reisen-7565/17
And he gave it for his opinion, "that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together." - Gulliver's Travels. Part II: Voyage to Brobdingnag. Chapter VII en.wikisource https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gulliver%27s_Travels/Part_II/Chapter_VII
— Jonathan Swift
Gedanken über verschiedene Gegenstände / Thoughts on Various Subjects
Original engl.: "[…] the self-love of some men inclines them to please others, and the self-love of others is wholly employed in pleasing themselves. This makes the great distinction between virtue and vice."
— Jonathan Swift
Context: 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.
Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift (1731), l. 459
— Jonathan Swift
Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 2
