How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
Jonathan SwiftRead
If a man makes me keep my distance, the comfort is, he keeps his at the same time.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the mutual nature of distance in relationships; if one person maintains distance, the other can feel reassured that the feeling is reciprocated.
Jonathan Swift's quote reflects on the dynamics of personal relationships, suggesting that when one individual chooses to keep their distance, it often implies that this distance is mutual. This can provide comfort to the one affected, as it indicates that they are not alone in their feelings of separation, underscoring a shared experience of emotional space.
Themes
DistanceRelationshipsMutualityComfortSeparation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a speech about personal boundaries in relationships.
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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