How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
Bachelor's fare: bread and cheese, and kisses.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the simplicity and joy in love, suggesting that affection can suffice over material wealth.
Jonathan Swift's quote illustrates the idea that love and companionship are more valuable than material possessions. The imagery of a simple meal of bread and cheese, along with affectionate kisses, suggests that the essence of a relationship can be found in modest pleasures and shared moments rather than extravagant lifestyles. It emphasizes that true happiness in love doesn't rely on opulence, but rather on the emotional connections we share with others.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a romantic dinner, one might share this quote to emphasize the importance of love over material wealth.
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.
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.
The bulk of mankind is as well equipped for flying as thinking.
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.
I'm as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth.
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I love myself, therefore, I behave in a loving way to all people for I know that that which I give out returns to me multiplied.
Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there.
If you are penitent, you love. And if you love you are of God. All things are atoned for, all things are saved by love. If I, a sinner even as you are, am tender with you and have pity on you, how much more will God have pity upon you. Love is such a priceless treasure that you can redeem the whole world by it, and cleanse not only your own sins but the sins of others.
The mechanics of love imply some sort of bridge between the sensual and the spiritual, sometimes to the point of deification; the notion of an afterlife is implicit not only in our couplings, but also in our separations.