Джонатан Свифт цитаты
There is one essential point, wherein a political liar differs from others of the faculty; that he ought to have but a short memory, which is necessary, according to the various occasions he meets with every hour of differing from himself, and swearing to both sides of a contradiction, as he finds the persons disposed with whom he has to deal.
Эссе для журнала «Исследователь», №14 (10 ноября 1710)
A political lie is sometimes born out of a discarded statesman's head, and thence delivered to be nursed and dandled by the rabble. Sometimes it is produced a monster, and licked into shape: at other times it comes into the world completely formed, and is spoiled in the licking. It is often born an infant in the regular way, and requires time to mature it; and often it sees the light in its full growth, but dwindles away by degrees. Sometimes it is of noble birth; and sometimes the spawn of a stock-jobber. Here it screams aloud at the opening of the womb; and there it is delivered with a whisper. I know a lie, that now disturbs half the kingdom with its noise, which, although too proud and great at present to own its parents, I can remember its whisperhood. To conclude the nativity of this monster; when it comes into the world without a sting, it is still-born; and whenever it loses its sting, it dies.
Эссе для журнала «Исследователь», №14 (10 ноября 1710)
All great changes have the same effects upon commonwealths, that thunder has upon liquors, making the dregs fly up to the top; the lowest plebeians rise to the head of affairs, and there preserve themselves, by representing the nobles, and other friends to the old government, as enemies to the publick.
№24 (8 января 1711)
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Men of great parts are often unfortunate in the management of public business, because they are apt to go out of the common road by the quickness of their imagination. <…> the clerks in [Lord Bolingbroke's] office used a sort of ivory knife with a blunt edge to divide a sheet of paper, which never failed to cut it even, only requiring a steady hand; whereas if they should make use of a sharp penknife, the sharpness would make it go often out of the crease and disfigure the paper.
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A footman's hat should fly off to every body; and therefore Mercury, who was Jupiter's footman, had wings fastened to his cap.
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To be vain, is rather a mark of humility than pride. Vain men delight in telling what honours have been done them, what great company they have kept, and the like, by which they plainly confess that these honours were more than their due, and such as their friends would not believe, if they had not been told: whereas a man truly proud, thinks the greatest honours below his merit, and consequently scorns to boast.
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„Ни один умный человек никогда не хотел быть моложе своих лет.“
No wise man ever wished to be younger.
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Princes in their infancy, childhood, and youth, are said to discover prodigious parts and wit, to speak things that surprise and astonish; strange, so many hopeful princes* and so many shameful kings ! If they happen to die young, they would have been prodigies of wisdom and virtue : if they live, they are often prodigies indeed, but of another sort.
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The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter, and a scarcity of words; for whoever is a master of language, and has a mind full of ideas, will be apt in speaking to hesitate upon the choice of both; whereas common speakers 'have only one set of ideas, and one set of words to clothe them in; and these are always ready at the mouth : so people come faster out of a church when it is almost empty, than when a crowd is at the door.
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Kings are commonly said to have long hands; I wish they had as long ears.
очевидно, чтобы слушать советы, а не ослоподобия
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A copy of verses kept in the cabinet, and only shown to a few friends, is like a virgin much sought after and admired; but when printed and published, is like a common whore, whom any body may purchase for half a crown.
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Источник: А. Долинин, О. Сконечная. Примечания // Набоков В. В. Русский период. Собрание сочинений в 5 томах. Т. 3. — СПб.: Симпозиум, 2000. — С. 764.
„Во все панегирики подмешан мак.“
All panegyrics are mingled with an infusion of poppy.
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I forget whether Advice be among the lost things which Aristo says are to be found in the moon; that and Time ought to have been there.
речь об эпизоде из поэмы «Неистовый Роланд»: утраченный Роландом от любви рассудок обнаруживается на луне, где в склянках хранится рассудок многих людей, потерявших его на земле
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Источник: В. Рак. Комментарии // Джонатан Свифт. Избранное. — Л.: Художественная литература, 1987. — С. 391-394, 407-441.
When we desire or solicit anything, our minds run wholly on the good side or circumstances of it; when it is obtained, our minds run wholly on the bad ones.
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We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
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Часть III, Глава 5
Проект думающей машины. Цитата позже была использована как эпиграф к 65 главе романа Умберто Эко «Маятник Фуко» (1988).
Путешествия Гулливера
Eloquence smooth and cutting, is like a razor whetted with oil.
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If the men of wit and genius would resolve never to complain in their works of critics and detractors, the next age would not know that they ever had any.
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„Религия, кажется, выросла из младенческого возраста и уже не требуется чудес, чтоб её нянчить.“
Religion seems to have grown an infant with age, and requires miracles to nurse it, as it had in its infancy.
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The reason why so few marriages are happy, is, because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.
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