A Modest Proposal Quotes

Find the perfect quote to float your boat. Shmoop breaks down key quotations from A Modest Proposal.

Suffering Quotes

It is a melancholy object to walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three,...

Inertia Quotes

I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for the landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children. (12)

Society and Class Quotes

It is a melancholy object to walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three,...

Morality and Ethics Quotes

There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas, too frequent among us, sacrif...

Visions of Ireland Quotes

It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors crowded with beggars. (1)

Foreignness and "The Other" Quotes

I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is, in the present deplo...

Politics Quotes

[…] and therefore, whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound and useful members of the commonwealth would deserve so well of the public as to have his s...

Power Quotes

For we [...] neither build houses (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land. (7)

Greed Quotes

I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children. (12)

Religion Quotes

These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to […] beg sustenance for their helpless infants, who as they grow up, […] leave their dear native country t...