Jonathan Swift — "The only difference between a wise man and a fool is that a wise man knows he is…"
The only difference between a wise man and a fool is that a wise man knows he is a fool, and a fool thinks he is wise.
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More from Jonathan Swift
"The greatest inventions were at first but the objects of ridicule."
"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own."
"Of all the dispositions of the mind, envy is the most diabolical, and the most productive of misery."
"The stoical scheme of supplying our wants, by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes."
"Happiness is a perpetual possession of being well deceived."
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 no direct textual source found. Appears in various collections of Swift quotes.
Date: 18th Century
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Found in 1 providers: grok
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