Jonathan Swift — "One of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the …"
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.
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More from Jonathan Swift
"Not die here in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole."
"Complaint is the largest tribute Heaven receives, and the sincerest part of our devotion."
"I could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without salt."
"It is a maxim that a man who has made his fortune, may do what he pleases."
"The only way to retrieve the credit of the nation, is to pay off the public debts."
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.