Jonathan Swift's Quotes

If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a scoundrel.

Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.

It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not.

Most sorts of diversion in men, children and other animals, are in imitation of fighting.

No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from age and experience.

Observation is an old man's memory.

The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.

The want of belief is a defect that ought to be concealed when it cannot be overcome.

There were many times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails.

We are so fond on one another because our ailments are the same.

What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not do we are told expressly.

Where I am not understood, it shall be concluded that something very useful and profound is couched underneath.

Where there are large powers with little ambition... nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes.

It is a maxim among these lawyers, that whatever hath been done before, may legally be done again: and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and the general reason of mankind.

I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular, but some degree of persecution.

It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have been designed by providence as an evil to mankind.

Positiveness is a good quality for preachers and speakers because, whoever shares his thoughts with the public will convince them as he himself appears convinced.

May you live all the days of your life.

When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.

Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.

A lie does not consist in the indirect position of words, but in the desire and intention, by false speaking, to deceive and injure your neighbour.

We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.

Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.

Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want.

Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest people uneasy is the best bred in the room.

A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying... that he is wiser today than yesterday.

Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old.

I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing.

One enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can do good.

He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.

The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman.

A tavern is a place where madness is sold by the bottle.

Better belly burst than good liquor be lost.

There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.

No wise man ever wished to be younger.

Words are but wind; and learning is nothing but words; ergo, learning is nothing but wind.

Books, the children of the brain.

There is nothing constant in this world but inconsistency.

I can't really change the games I like to make, and I can't change my own particular aesthetic.

I like that I make toys.

I love humorous games. I love to laugh, and I think it's a really great way to attract players.

I started working at Airtight Games after I shipped 'Left 4 Dead 2' back in 2009.

I think if a person plays 'Quantum Conundrum' and they walk away feeling really intelligent and skilled, that's what I want. That's my only goal.

I was the lead designer on 'Portal,' and I really enjoyed making that type of game.

'Quantum Conundrum' is a direct reflection, not just of me, but of our entire team. It has a little bit of all of our personalities in it.

What's great about games in particular is that it's a socially acceptable way for adults to imagine.

Being young is an advantage. You've grown up with games as the dominant entertainment. You have a lot of experience of video games. So what do you want to see that's not been done? Innovation is really low cost for you. You can afford to take risks and fail to execute new ideas.

Games can be art, and they can be significant and all the glorified things that we want them to be. But if you ask a kid if their toys are important, they'll say 'yes,' and 'Please don't take them away.'

I think different games have a different chemical release in your brain as far as reward goes. I like making puzzle games, just because I know I'm kinda good at it, and they really are superfun to work on.

I think the downloadable scene in general is really, really interesting for developers because it's low-risk. It doesn't require as much money as a triple-A title. And it's a great proving ground for new IPs, new concepts, new ideas - things that I think I, as a developer, find really attractive.

I'd been at Valve since I got out of college. I felt like I kind of grew up there, and I wanted to see what else was out in the world. One of the owners of Airtight Games is a friend of mine, and he asked if I would run a team there. It just sounded like a great opportunity.

One of the things I loved about working on 'Portal' was that we'd get emails from people saying, 'I love to play first-person shooters but my girlfriend won't play them with me. But I got her to play 'Portal' and she had a blast.'

'Quantum Conundrum' has a little bit of something for everybody - it's got something for kids and it's got enough of a challenge for a hardcore gamer.

The drawings in 'Portal' were actually me scribbling that stuff... I had a funny moment when I realized that someone gotten 'The cake is a lie' tattooed on themselves. It was really interesting to see my handwriting tattooed on another human being. That... that's odd.

Typically my ideas come to me in the most inane ways possible. I had the initial idea for 'Quantum Conundrum' while I was walking down the street to get breakfast. People are like, 'Whoa, what's your inspiration, is it something amazing?' No, I was just really hungry.

When I play games, I'll make up little stories for just anything. It's almost the game of making up background stories for people you see on the street. You know what I mean? I wasn't exactly the popular kid in school growing up, so I found myself really observing people, and watching how they interact, and how they react to things.