“These reasonings will furnish us with an adequate definition of a true critic: that he is a discoverer and collector of writers’ faults. Which may be farther put beyond dispute by the following demonstration: that whoever will examine the writings in all kinds, wherewith this ancient sect has honoured the world, shall immediately find, from the whole thread and tenor of them, that the ideas of the authors have been altogether conversant and taken up with the faults and blemishes, and oversights, and mistakes of other writers; and let the subject treated on be whatever it will, their imaginations are so entirely possessed and replete with the defects of other pens, that the very quintessence of what is bad does of necessity distil into their own, by which means the whole appears to be nothing else but an abstract of the criticisms themselves have made.”
Quote by Jonathan Swift
Work
A Tale of a Tub and Other Works
Browse quotes and source details for this work. more
Author
You May Also Like
Source: The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales
“Heads I love you, tails, I don’t even like you.”
Source: Pieces of a Broken Mind
Source: Lovelier Than Daylight
Source: All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life
“Scripture has the remedy for sinfulness.”
Source: Billy Graham in Quotes
“Shallow are the souls that have forgotten how to shudder. Leon Cass”
Source: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
“Natural doesn't automatically mean good... every one of us was born sinful.”
Source: Born Again This Way
Source: Embrace Your Sexual Self: A Practical Guide for Women
“Selective morality is sinful.”
Source: Listen to Your Conscience: That's Why You Have One
