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Gulliver Quotes

Browse 23 quotes about Gulliver.

Gulliver Quotes

“There are lands of the imagination that cannot exist, but seem real; and there are lands that once existed that somehow seem remote and hard to credit. Perhaps their comparative solidity depends on the hand of a skilled writer. Who can doubt the reality of the countries beyond the sea that Jonathan Swift peopled so skilfully for his hero Lemuel Gulliver to visit, not merely to stimulate the imagination, but as a ruse to illustrate human frailties: puffed up and monstrous in Brobdignag, or shrunk in Lilliput to petty proportions to match the triviality of their concerns? Yet to travel back in time to the land of the Gonds - Gondwana - or to try to grasp the reality of Pangaea 250 million years ago seems to require a greater leap of imagination. But these places existed, as solid as Africa is today.”

ImaginationGulliverGondwanaPangaeaBrobdignagImaginary LandsLeap Of ImaginationLilliputRemote Lands
Book:Earth: An Intimate History
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“Books have their destinies like men. And their fates, as made by generations of readers, are very different from the destinies foreseen for them by their authors. Gulliver's Travels, with a minimum of expurgation, has become a children's book; a new illustrated edition is produced every Christmas. That's what comes of saying profound things about humanity in terms of a fairy story.”

MenChildrenMadeBookDifferentStoriesHumanityLiteratureTermDestinyFateGenerationsReaderTraditionProfoundFairyMinimumChildren's BooksForeseenFairy StoriesGulliverGulliver's Travels
Book:Rotunda: a selection from the works of Aldous Huxley
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“There's a whole slew of wonderful speculation of flying in a fanciful way. Gulliver is one of the central examples; Swift has the hum of Arabian Nights in his ear with Gulliver's Travels. The difference is in scale - Gulliver as a kind of Sinbad kind of figure, the way he is picked up and carried. Just to finish up with Scheherazade, I do think that The Arabian Nights could be considered as a great book on women's position in the world.”

ThinkingWorldWayKindBookWholeNightDifferencesWonderfulFiguresExamplePositionEarsFlyingScalesSpeculationGreat BookArabianGulliverArabian NightsGulliver's Travels
Author:Marina Warner
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“I am Plato's Republic. Mr. Simmons is Marcus. I want you to meet Jonathan Swift, the author of that evil political book, Gulliver's Travels! And this other fellow is Charles Darwin, and-this one is Schopenhauer, and this one is Einstein, and this one here at my elbow is Mr. Albert Schweitzer, a very kind philosopher indeed. Here we all are, Montag. Aristophanes and Mahatma Gandhi and Gautama Buddha and Confucius and Thomas Love Peacock and Thomas Jefferson and Mr. Lincoln, if you please. We are also Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.”

IfsWantKindBookPoliticalEvilPleaseMarkFellowsPhilosopherRepublicI Want YouPlatoLukeElbowsMatthewPeacockPlato SGulliverGulliver's TravelsGautama BuddhaPlato's Republic
Author:Ray Bradbury
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“And he gave it for his opinion, "that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.”

TwoCountryWholeTogetherPoliticsGrowsRaceOpinionMankindGrewPoliticianEssentialsDeserveEarsSpotsGrassVegetablesGrainAgricultureEcologyBladesFarmingCornBlades Of GrassDeserve BetterGulliverGulliver's Travels
Author:Jonathan Swift
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“When the Lilliputians first saw Gulliver's watch, that "wonderful kind of engine...a globe, half silver and half of some transparent metal," they identified it immediately as the god he worshiped. After all, "he seldom did anything without consulting it: he called it his oracle, and said it pointed out the time for every action in his life." To Jonathan Swift in 1726 that was worth a bit of satire. Modernity was under way. We're all Gullivers now. Or are we Yahoos?”

WayFirstsKindSaidActionBitsHalfWatchesSawsWonderfulSilverSatireEnginesMetalsGlobesTransparentModernityConsultingOraclesGulliver
Book:Faster: The Acceleration of Just about Everything
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“The trombones crunched redgold under my bed, and behind my gulliver the trumpets three-wise silverflamed, and there by the door the timps rolling through my guts and out again crunched like candy thunder. Oh, it was wonder of wonders. And then, a bird of like rarest spun heavenmetal, or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now, came the violin solo above all the other strings, and those strings were like a cage of silk around my bed. Then flute and oboe bored, like worms of like platinum, into the thick thick toffee gold and silver. I was in such bliss, my brothers.”

ThreeBehindsWonderWiseDoorsBrotherBedBirdGoldWineBoredBlissMy BrotherGutsNonsenseSilverStringsGravityThickRollingSoloCagesCandyWormsThunderViolinSilkTrumpetsSpaceshipsSpunFlutesGold And SilverPlatinumTromboneGulliverOboesToffee
Author:Anthony Burgess
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“Why are we never quite at ease in the presence of a schoolmaster? Because we are conscious that he is not quite at his ease in ours. He is awkward, and out of place in the society of his equals. He comes like Gulliver from among his little people, and he cannot fit the stature of his understanding to yours.”

PeopleLittlesUnderstandingEducationTeacherTeachingFitConsciousEaseAwkwardNever QuitStatureGulliver
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles and Mary Lamb (Illustrated)
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