Quote#Truth
Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men…
Quote byJonathan Swift · 1667–1745
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Examiner No. XIV (Thursday, November 9th, 1710).
English (original)
Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.
— Jonathan Swift
More from Jonathan Swift
Instead of dirt and poison we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax; thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.
Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.
He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.
I mean you lie—under a mistake.
Lord M. What religion is he of? Lord Sp. Why, he is an Anythingarian.
There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake, though all the World sees them to be in downright nonsense.