One of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid.

—Jonathan Swift

About Jonathan Swift

Portrait of Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) 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...

More quotations from Jonathan Swift

Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same posture with creeping.

—Jonathan Swift

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

—Jonathan Swift

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

—Jonathan Swift

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

—Jonathan Swift

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.

—Jonathan Swift

More quotations tagged with “conversation”

Anecdotes and maxims are rich treasures to the man of the world, for he knows how to introduce the former at fit place in conversation.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

—George Bernard Shaw

To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.

—Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Few are agreeable in conversation, because each thinks more of what he intends to say than of what others are saying, and listens no more when he himself has a chance to speak.

—Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Education begins a gentleman, conversation completes him.

—Dr. Thomas Fuller

History

11 Jul 2015 Added