Jonathan Swift — "It is a miserable thing to be a man of sense in a country where the generality o…"
It is a miserable thing to be a man of sense in a country where the generality of the people are fools.
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More from Jonathan Swift
"The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not."
"The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter and a torrent of words."
"I am assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London; that a young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food; whether stewed, roas…"
"The only way to retrieve the credit of the nation, is to pay off the public debts."
"I could wish that some of our young divines would not think it beneath them to consult the most celebrated plays and romances, as well as the most approved poets and orators."
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.