Pedantry is properly the over-rating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Pedantry is the excessive valuation of knowledge we claim to possess.
- In plain terms
- It is pretending to know more than you actually do.
- What can you take from it?
- Avoid boasting about knowledge you do not truly understand.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When did you last pretend to know something?
- How do you show genuine curiosity?
Another view
Not all confidence in knowledge is pedantry; expertise exists.
More from Jonathan Swift
Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy is the best bred in the company.
Permalink to quote #33 Pride, ill nature, and want of sense, are the three great sources of ill manners.
Permalink to quote #35 Under an oak, in stormy weather, I joined this rogue and whore together; And none but he who rules the thunder Can put this rogue and whore asunder.
Permalink to quote #32
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