How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.
Jonathan SwiftRead
That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The universe's complexity cannot be attributed to chance, just as a meaningful text cannot arise from random letters.
In this quote, Jonathan Swift expresses disbelief in the idea that the intricate structure of the universe is the result of random chance or coincidence. He compares the formation of the universe to a meaningless jumbling of letters, suggesting that just as a coherent philosophical treatise requires intentional order, so too does the universe require intentional design or purpose.
Themes
UniverseAtomsDesignPhilosophyChance
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the meaning of existence, this quote can be used to emphasize the need for a purposeful understanding of the universe.
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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