How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
Jonathan SwiftRead
So, naturalists observe, a flea; Hath smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller fleas to bite 'em, And so proceed ad infinitum.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote illustrates a cycle of dependency and hierarchy in nature, where each creature is preyed upon by a smaller one.
In this quote, Jonathan Swift observes the interconnectedness of life forms, highlighting how each organism exists within a complex hierarchy of predation. It suggests a perpetual cycle where every creature, no matter how small, has its own predators, reinforcing the idea of life being a continuum of relationships and dependencies that stretch infinitely.
Themes
NatureDependencyInterconnectednessPredationHierarchy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about ecological relationships in a biology class.
More from Jonathan Swift
All quotes βWhat 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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