How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
Jonathan SwiftRead
Seamen have a custom, when they meet a whale, to fling him out an empty tub by way of amusement, to divert him from laying violent hands upon the ship.
Interpretation
The quote humorously illustrates the absurdity of how one might deal with a threat, showing a creative but impractical solution.
In this quote, Jonathan Swift employs humor to depict the sailors' unconventional practice of distracting a whale with an empty tub. This absurd scenario reflects a broader commentary on human behavior in the face of danger, suggesting that sometimes we resort to whimsical and illogical actions rather than addressing serious threats directly.
In practice
This quote can be used to lighten the mood during a discussion about unconventional solutions to problems.
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.
EMOTION, n. A prostrating disease caused by a determination of the heart to the head. It is sometimes accompanied by a copious discharge of hydrated chloride of sodium from the eyes.
I have no intention of uttering my last words on the stage. Room service and a couple of depraved young women will do me quite nicely for an exit.
There are so many funny women in the world, and there has been for so many years, so I'll be happy when people can just move on from that, and things can just be 'comedies' and not 'female' or 'male,' and everyone gets an equal opportunity.
Molly Shannon and I used to always talk about that we really felt strongly that we were comedic actors, that we weren't comedians. You just played things real and the comedy came out of the context.
I imagine hell like this: Italian punctuality, German humour and English wine.
A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
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