Stupidity was as necessary as intelligence, and as difficult to attain.

Politically, Swift was one of those people who are driven into a sort of perverse Toryism by the follies of the progressive party of the moment.

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.

Perhaps a man really dies when his brain stops, when he loses the power to take in a new idea.

In so far as it takes effect at all, pacifist propaganda can only be effective against those countries where a certain amount of freedom of speech is still permitted; in other words it is helpful to totalitarianism.

When I joined the militia I had promised myself to kill one Fascist - after all, if each of us killed one they would soon be extinct.

War is a way of shattering to pieces... materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and... too intelligent.