Jonathan Swift Quotes

Swift defined observation to be an old man's memory.

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.

Wisdom sails with wind and time.

You can observe a lot by watching.

When you are old and gray and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire, take down this book and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep.

It is not white hair that engenders wisdom.

Knowledge is ancient error reflecting on its youth.

Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.

How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly.

It's funny: the older I get, the more I can pick out when people are acting.

I don't see people. I don't see men and women at all. When I see them, I see... their mothers and fathers. I see how old they are inside. Like when I look at the president, or anybody in a record company, or a store owner, I may see a little boy behind the counter with the face of an old man. And that's who I talk to.

The thing about wisdom is you store the past in your head.

Wisdom is a gift but has nothing to do with age. That was probably the case with me.

Observation, not old age, brings wisdom.

When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see.

Regrets are the natural property of grey hairs.

Common sense varies among the young, as among the old.

Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.

Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.

The wise man reads both books and life itself.

I don't know why it is, but sometimes I feel like I'm 60. It's like I've been around for a long time. I felt that way even when I was 8.

The past has infinite value if one learns from it.

Old age and the passage of time teach all things.

Knowledge is marvelous, but wisdom is even better.

The older I get, the better I used to be.