How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
Jonathan SwiftRead
Those dreams that on the silent night intrude, and with false flitting shapes our minds delude ... are mere productions of the brain. And fools consult interpreters in vain.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Dreams may mislead us, as they are often just creations of our own minds.
Jonathan Swift's quote reflects the idea that dreams can be deceptive and that people often seek interpretations for dreams which ultimately hold no real significance. It suggests that relying on dreams or external interpretations is futile, as they are simply products of our imagination and not a source of truth.
Themes
DreamsDeceptionImaginationInterpretationFutility
In practice
Example use cases
During a psychology lecture about the nature of dreams.
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.
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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.
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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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