Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17.djvu/384

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Wherever I find a great deal of gratitude in a poor man, I take it for granted, there would be as much generosity if he were a rich man.

Flowers of rhetorick, in sermons and serious discourses, are like the blue and red flowers in corn, pleasing to them who come only for amusement, but prejudicial to him who would reap the profit.

When two people compliment each other with the choice of any thing, each of them generally gets that which he likes least.

He who tells a lie, is not sensible how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.

Giving advice, is, many times, only the privilege of saying a foolish thing one's self, under pretence of hindering another from doing one.

It is with followers at court as with followers on the road, who first bespatter those that go before, and then tread on their heels.

False happiness is like false money; it passes for a time as well as the true, and serves some ordinary occasions: but when it is brought to the touch, we find the liglitness and allay, and feel the loss. XXXV. Das-