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Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.
Jonathan Swift
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Young people have the creativity to invent, while older individuals possess the wisdom to make sound judgments.

This quote by Jonathan Swift highlights the contrasting strengths of youth and age. Youth is often characterized by a fresh and inventive spirit, capable of dreaming up new ideas and innovations. In contrast, age brings experience and the ability to judge how those inventions can be applied wisely and effectively. Swift suggests that both of these qualities are essential in the growth and progress of society, with invention driving change and judgment ensuring it is directed in the right way.

Themes

InventionYouthJudgmentAgeWisdom

In practice

Example use cases

A mentor might use this quote to inspire young entrepreneurs at a startup workshop.

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How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
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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.
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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.
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I'm as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth.
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A little wisdom, now and then

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