How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Young people have the creativity to invent, while older individuals possess the wisdom to make sound judgments.
This quote by Jonathan Swift highlights the contrasting strengths of youth and age. Youth is often characterized by a fresh and inventive spirit, capable of dreaming up new ideas and innovations. In contrast, age brings experience and the ability to judge how those inventions can be applied wisely and effectively. Swift suggests that both of these qualities are essential in the growth and progress of society, with invention driving change and judgment ensuring it is directed in the right way.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
A mentor might use this quote to inspire young entrepreneurs at a startup workshop.
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.
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.
Similar quotes
I only seek in my old age to perfect that which I had not before thoroughly learned in my youth, because my sins were a hindrance to me.
The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.
There is an unseen sweetness in the stomachβs emptiness. We are lutes. When the sound box is filled, no music can come forth. When the brain and the belly burn from fasting, every moment a new song rises out of the fire. The mists clear, and a new vitality makes you spring up the steps before you . . .
The only guide to a man's conscience, the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions.
Intelligent or not, we all make mistakes and perhaps the intelligent mistakes are the worst, because so much careful thought has gone into them.
To be unforgiving is like to drink poison and wait for someone else to die!! Rev. TD Jakes (have I said how much I love ya!)