Jonathan Swift — "Argument is the worst of all instruments for the discovery of truth."
Argument is the worst of all instruments for the discovery of truth.
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More from Jonathan Swift
"I am not for imposing any thing on the clergy, but for leaving them to their own discretion."
"Not die here in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole."
"May you live all the days of your life."
"I could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without salt."
"Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it."
About Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Anglo-Irish satirist and Dean of Dublin's St Patrick's Cathedral whose Gulliver's Travels (1726) and A Modest Proposal (1729) are the canonical English-language satires. Closely associated with Alexander Pope (Scriblerus Club poet and collaborator) and John Gay (Beggar's Opera author and satirical contemporary). For an intellectual contrast, see Daniel Defoe, English Whig journalist and Robinson Crusoe author (1660-1731) — Defoe's Crusoe (1719) celebrates Enlightenment self-reliance and the colonial-mercantile project; Swift's Gulliver (1726) systematically dismantles every form of human pretension Defoe celebrated. The cleanest Augustan Whig-vs-Tory literary pairing — optimistic-empirical vs misanthropic-satirical.