How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
Jonathan SwiftRead
That was excellently observed’, say I, when I read a passage in an author, where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, there I pronounce him to be mistaken.
Interpretation
What this quote means
People often validate opinions they agree with while dismissing those they do not.
In this quote, Jonathan Swift reflects on the human tendency to embrace and appreciate ideas that align with our own beliefs, while instinctively critiquing or rejecting those that do not. This observation underscores a common psychological bias where individuals perceive agreement as a mark of correctness, while disagreement leads to judgments of error or misconception in others.
Themes
OpinionAgreementDisagreementPerceptionBias
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a debate to highlight the importance of considering differing perspectives.
More from Jonathan Swift
All quotes →What 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.
Jonathan SwiftRead
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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