Jonathan Swift Quotes

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

Men are often capable of greater things than they perform - They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and... the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

We think that we have great potential but never reach it.

It sounds ideal, a sort of beach childhood. But it wasn't really. I didn't use the beach very much at all.

Man knows so much and does so little.

Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.

Youth is a period of missed opportunities.

If something comes up I might write about it, but without an outlet the whole thing winds down.

Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking.

Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.

Consider what it is like to go into a new classroom and to see before you suddenly, and in a way you cannot avoid recognizing, the dreadful consequences of a year's wastage of so many lives.

An unused life is an early death.

Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.

We can spend our whole lives underachieving.

What a pity so few

Between 1972 and 1976, I really didn't do much.

I almost get annoyed at the fact that I'm not going to use all that I got.

During my freshman year of college, it became undeniably clear that I didn't want to be great again. I correlated greatness with misery.

I never want to feel at the end of a game that I still have some energy left.

Boredom is your imagination calling to you.

Humans seem to be programmed to think of ambivalent feelings at the same time. That is the driving force behind human beings: to be the warrant of all things and to control other worlds.

I really didn't have aspirations. I was just tall.

I think the Knight boys have a long history of disappointing their fathers.

I wasn't playing at Arsenal, and I was frustrated. I was doing everything I could do, looking after myself, scoring, and playing in the Europa League then when the cup came, but it wasn't enough for me, and I wanted more.