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Jonathan Swift

3 free books by Jonathan Swift. 3 you can read right here.

Born 1667 in Dublin · Died 1745 in Dublin

writer, novelist, poet, essayist · Kingdom of Ireland

Notable works: Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Tale of a Tub

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Facts from Wikidata (Q41166), retrieved 2026-09-26.

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Quotes from Jonathan Swift’s books

Verified word for word in the text: each quote is copied exactly from the book’s text in this site’s reader (the Project Gutenberg e-text named under each book) and links to its passage; when this page was built, every quote was checked word for word against that text. How RedLectern is built.

Gulliver’s Travels

From Project Gutenberg e-text #829 (public domain in the USA).

But by what I have gathered from your own relation, and the answers I have with much pains wrung and extorted from you, I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.

— Spoken by a character · Chapter VI

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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.”

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A Modest Proposal

From Project Gutenberg e-text #1080 (public domain in the USA).

I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.

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I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasee, or a ragoust.

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A Tale of a Tub

From Project Gutenberg e-text #4737 (public domain in the USA).

Books, like men their authors, have no more than one way of coming into the world, but there are ten thousand to go out of it and return no more.

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But when a man’s fancy gets astride on his reason, when imagination is at cuffs with the senses, and common understanding as well as common sense is kicked out of doors, the first proselyte he makes is himself; and when that is once compassed, the difficulty is not so great in bringing over others, a strong delusion always operating from without as vigorously as from within.

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