How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
Jonathan SwiftRead
The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that many young women focus on creating opportunities for relationships rather than establishing lasting commitments in marriage.
Jonathan Swift's quote reflects on the nature of relationships and marriage, implying that the pursuit of romance and social opportunities may distract young women from the deeper, more meaningful work of building a solid and fulfilling partnership. By likening relationships to 'nets' and 'cages,' he critiques an approach that prioritizes flattery and attraction over genuine connection and commitment, indicating that true happiness in marriage requires a different kind of focus and effort.
Themes
MarriageRelationshipsHappinessCommitmentLove
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a wedding toast to emphasize the importance of commitment.
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
Similar quotes
Be polite to all, but intimate with few.
Thomas JeffersonRead
A unique relationship develops among team members who enter into dialogue regularly. They develop a deep trust that cannot help but carry over to discussions. They develop a richer understanding of the uniqueness of each person's point of view.
Peter SengeRead
He wanted her. He knew where to find her. He waited. It amused him to wait, because he knew that the waiting was unbearable to her. He knew that his absence bound her to him in a manner more complete and humiliating than his presence could enforce. He was giving her time to attempt an escape, in order to let her know her own helplessness when he chose to see her again.
Ayn RandRead
The only way a relationship will last is if you see it as a place that you go to give, and not a place that you go to take.
Tony RobbinsRead
What’s so phony nowadays is all this familiarity. Pretending there isn’t any difference between people —well, like you were saying about minorities, this morning. If you and I are no different, what do we have to give each other? How can we ever be friends?
Christopher IsherwoodRead
As Asian-Americans, the charge that is often lobbed against us is sort of the least original: the idea that somehow we're perpetual foreigners, that we can't be trusted, and that even my father, who was patriotic to the point that it was kind of a joke among his children, would be accused of being disloyal to America.
David Henry HwangRead