Jonathan Swift — "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the…"
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
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More from Jonathan Swift
"Dogs have at least the advantage over men, that they discover their friends, and bark at their enemies."
"Books, the children of the brain."
"Happiness is a perpetual possession of being well deceived."
"When dunces are satiric, I take it for a panegyric."
"Eloquence, as well as the other fine arts, must be cultivated with care."
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.