How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
Jonathan SwiftRead
No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from age and experience.
Interpretation
Everyone can learn and grow from their experiences regardless of their expertise.
This quote emphasizes that no matter how knowledgeable or skilled a person becomes, there is always room for growth and learning through the experiences that come with aging. It suggests that the journey of life is a continuous process of gaining wisdom and understanding as we encounter new situations and information.
In practice
During a motivational speech about personal development.
How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
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.
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.
To have a great idea, have a lot of them.
Practice not-doing and everything will fall into place.
Oh, how I like those little mortifications that are seen by nobody, such as rising a quarter of an hour sooner, rising for a little while in the night to pray!
Only let the moving waters calm down, and the sun and moon will be reflected on the surface of your being.
You need an incredible amount of self-confidence to go digging around in someone's brain.
Sometimes a tree tells you more than can be read in books.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.