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
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