Quote 1
I said, "there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving, by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are slaves. (4.5.11)
This "society of men" is lawyers. Gulliver thinks that all lawyers must be deceitful because they're paid to argue, and it has nothing to do with personal conviction. And the Master Horse agrees that it is a perversion of law to make it subject to things like money and private interest.
Quote 2
"Golbasto Momarem Evlame Gurdilo Shefin Mully Ully Gue, most mighty Emperor of Lilliput, delight and terror of the universe, whose dominions extend five thousand blustrugs (about twelve miles in circumference) to the extremities of the globe; monarch of all monarchs, taller than the sons of men; whose feet press down to the centre, and whose head strikes against the sun; at whose nod the princes of the earth shake their knees; pleasant as the spring, comfortable as the summer, fruitful as autumn, dreadful as winter: his most sublime majesty proposes to the man-mountain, lately arrived at our celestial dominions, the following articles, which, by a solemn oath, he shall be obliged to perform." (1.3.9)
This is the incredibly long introduction to the document that allows Gulliver his (limited) freedom in Lilliput. There are a couple of things that strike us about this: first off, it shows the restricted perspective of the Lilliputians. They think that twelve miles extends to the ends of the earth? Second, the incredibly exaggerated descriptions of the Emperor of Lilliput (whose head certainly does not hit the sun) indicates the way that written language can be used to flatter and deceive (compare this, with, say, the lack of any written language at all in Houyhnhnm Land). And last but not least, we get a small parody of courtly language; boy, does it take them a long time to get to the point.
Quote 3
Whereupon I was at much pains to describe to him the use of money, the materials it was made of, and the value of the metals; "that when a Yahoo had got a great store of this precious substance, he was able to purchase whatever he had a mind to; the finest clothing, the noblest houses, great tracts of land, the most costly meats and drinks, and have his choice of the most beautiful females." (4.6.1)
Gulliver explains to the Master Horse what money is. The Master Horse has also observed that Houyhnhnm Land Yahoos are attracted to shiny rocks. This raises the question: how many of our social problems are human nature, and how many are the result of historical or environmental problems? Gulliver seems to imply elsewhere that greed is human nature, but that it's gotten a lot worse in recent times. Why?
Quote 4
I replied "that England (the dear place of my nativity) was computed to produce three times the quantity of food more than its inhabitants are able to consume, as well as liquors extracted from grain, or pressed out of the fruit of certain trees, which made excellent drink, and the same proportion in every other convenience of life. But, in order to feed the luxury and intemperance of the males, and the vanity of the females, we sent away the greatest part of our necessary things to other countries, whence, in return, we brought the materials of diseases, folly, and vice, to spend among ourselves. (4.6.2)
Gulliver blames increasing desire for luxury on England's exposure to other nations. And Lilliput is in a high state of corruption in part because of its ongoing war with Blefuscu. All the best islands, Brobdingnag and Houyhnhnm Land, are totally isolated. So, it would seem that staying put in your country would be a good thing? But this book is called Gulliver's Travels, and Gulliver uses the opportunity of his travels to offer useful critiques. If you try to isolate your nation from the world too much, doesn't that lead to Houyhnhnm-style of smugness?
Quote 5
I told him "we fed on a thousand things which operated contrary to each other; that we ate when we were not hungry, and drank without the provocation of thirst; that we sat whole nights drinking strong liquors, without eating a bit, which disposed us to sloth, inflamed our bodies, and precipitated or prevented digestion; that prostitute female Yahoos acquired a certain malady, which bred rottenness in the bones of those who fell into their embraces; that this, and many other diseases, were propagated from father to son; so that great numbers came into the world with complicated maladies upon them; that it would be endless to give him a catalogue of all diseases incident to human bodies. (4.6.4)
The lucky Houyhnhnms don't get sick, but humans do. And Gulliver seems to feel that all illness is the sufferer's own fault, the result of living in a decadent society with too much food, drink, and sex. What's odd about this is that Gulliver is, himself, a surgeon. You wouldn't think he would speak out so strongly against medicine when he is a student of it. Among the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver really is forgetting everything about himself – and isn't hypocrisy itself a sin?
Quote 6
He made me observe, "that among the Houyhnhnms, the white, the sorrel, and the iron-gray, were not so exactly shaped as the bay, the dapple-gray, and the black; nor born with equal talents of mind, or a capacity to improve them; and therefore continued always in the condition of servants, without ever aspiring to match out of their own race, which in that country would be reckoned monstrous and unnatural." (4.6.15)
The Houyhnhnms split themselves up according to color and do not believe in intermixing. Gulliver doesn't talk much about races explicitly, but do you think this point about the Houyhnhnms indicate a racialist agenda to this portion of the satire? Where else might we find signs of what Gulliver thinks of race?
Quote 7
In the school of political projectors, I was but ill entertained; the professors appearing, in my judgment, wholly out of their senses, which is a scene that never fails to make me melancholy. These unhappy people were proposing schemes for persuading monarchs to choose favourites upon the score of their wisdom, capacity, and virtue [...] with many other wild, impossible chimeras, that never entered before into the heart of man to conceive; and confirmed in me the old observation, "that there is nothing so extravagant and irrational, which some philosophers have not maintained for truth." (3.6.1)
The idealism of the scientific projectors mostly makes Gulliver laugh (or get annoyed), but he claims to feel "melancholy" at the high hopes of the Political Projectors for a more ethical government. Why does Gulliver's tone suddenly shift? What is the object of satire in this paragraph – still the Projectors themselves, or something else?