"Say, Britain, could you ever boast, Three..." - Quote by Jonathan Swift
Say, Britain, could you ever boast, Three poets in an age at most? Our chilling climate hardly bears A sprig of bays in fifty years.
More by Jonathan Swift
“I have known some men possessed of good qualities which were very serviceable to others, but useless to themselves; like a sun-dial on the front of a house, to inform the neighbours and passengers, but not the owner within.”
“It is a maxim among these lawyers, that whatever hath been done before, may legally be done again: and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and the general reason of mankind.”
“Ah, a German and a genius ! A prodigy, admit him !”
More on Poetry
“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”
“she thought it was the misfortune of poetry, to be seldom safely enjoyed by those who enjoyed it completely; and that the strong feelings which alone could estimate it truly, were the very feelings which ought to taste it but sparingly.”
“Rude poets of the tavern hearth,squandering your unquoted mirth,which keeps the ground, and never soars,while jake retorts, and reuben roars;tough and screaming, as birch-bark,goes like bullet to its mark;while the solid curse and jeernever balk the waiting ear.”
More on Britain
“Even the lowest of the Hindus, the Pariah, has less of the brute in him than a Briton in a similar social status.”
“I believe that a party wishing equality for India does exist in Britain. But it is an insignificant minority, and while I honour and like their opinion I cannot be enthused over it, for I know that those who shape policy and dominate are otherwise inclined. For me, therefore, it is only the Secretary of State who counts.”
“It was not through democratic methods that Britain bagged India.”