Jonathan Swift — "Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen."
Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen.
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More from Jonathan Swift
"Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect."
"It is as impossible to please all men as to make a coat for the moon."
"The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter and a torrent of words."
"Argument is the worst enemy of truth."
"One of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid."
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.
Details
Attributed, but exact source is difficult to pinpoint. Often appears in collections of his sayings.
Date: 18th Century
GeneralVerification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: grok
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