Jonathan Swift — "The only difference between a wise man and a fool is, that the wise man knows hi…"
The only difference between a wise man and a fool is, that the wise man knows himself to be a fool, and the fool knows himself to be wise.
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"But as to myself, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which, as it is wholl…"
"The stoical scheme of supplying our wants, by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes."
"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
"The commonest things are the most useful; which shows the wisdom of God, who has made them common."
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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.