How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
Jonathan SwiftRead
A lie does not consist in the indirect position of words, but in the desire and intention, by false speaking, to deceive and injure your neighbour.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A lie is defined by the intention to deceive rather than just the words used.
In this quote, Jonathan Swift emphasizes that the essence of a lie lies not merely in the specific phrases or words employed but rather in the intention behind them. To lie is fundamentally about the desire to mislead and cause harm to another person, which highlights the moral responsibility associated with our words and actions.
Themes
LieTruthDeceitIntentionWords
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion about honesty in relationships, this quote can underline the importance of intention behind words.
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.
Jonathan SwiftRead
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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