Quote#World
This evil fortune, which generally attends extraordinary men in the…
Quote byJonathan Swift · 1667–1745
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Essay on the Fates of Clergymen (1728).
English (original)
This evil fortune, which generally attends extraordinary men in the management of great affairs, has been imputed to divers causes, that need not be here set down, when so obvious a one occurs, if what a certain writer observes be true, that when a great genius appears in the world the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
— Jonathan Swift
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He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.
I mean you lie—under a mistake.
There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake, though all the World sees them to be in downright nonsense.