How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
Jonathan SwiftRead
Human brutes, like other beasts, find snares and poison in the provision of life, and are allured by their appetites to their destruction.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Humans can be led to harm by their own desires, just as animals are often trapped by their instincts.
In this quote, Jonathan Swift reflects on the darker aspects of human nature, suggesting that like other animals, humans may fall into traps and make harmful choices driven by their appetites. He highlights the idea that desires and cravings can be detrimental, leading individuals to danger and eventual destruction if not managed wisely.
Themes
DesiresHuman NatureSelf-DestructionAppetitesTraps
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about addiction, this quote could emphasize the dangers of succumbing to harmful cravings.
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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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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