How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
Jonathan SwiftRead
When we desire or solicit anything, our minds run wholly on the good side or circumstances of it; when it is obtained, our minds run wholly on the bad ones.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes how our perception shifts from positive anticipation to negative evaluation once we achieve our desires.
Jonathan Swift highlights a common psychological phenomenon where the anticipation of a desire is filled with hope and positivity, but once that desire is fulfilled, we become critical and focus on the potential downsides. This reflects a human tendency to overlook the challenges of obtaining what we want while fixating on the imperfections once it is achieved.
Themes
DesirePerceptionPsychologySatisfactionAnticipation
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about managing expectations in life.
More from Jonathan Swift
All quotes βWhat vexes me most is, that my female friends, who could bear me very well a dozen years ago, have now forsaken me, although I am not so old in proportion to them as I formerly was: which I can prove by arithmetic, for then I was double their age, which now I am not. Letter to Alexander Pope. 7 Feb. 1736.
Jonathan SwiftRead
This is every cook's opinion - _x000D_ no savory dish without an onion, _x000D_ but lest your kissing should be spoiled _x000D_ your onions must be fully boiled.
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The bulk of mankind is as well equipped for flying as thinking.
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This single Stick, which you now behold ingloriously lying in that neglected Corner, I once knew in a flourishing State in a Forest: It was full of Sap, full of Leaves, and full of Boughs: But now, in vain does the busy Art of Man pretend to vie with Nature, by tying that withered Bundle of Twigs to its sapless Trunk: It is at best but the Reverse of what it was; a Tree turned upside down, the Branches on the Earth, and the Root in the Air.
Jonathan SwiftRead
I'm as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth.
Jonathan SwiftRead
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