Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Describes a society where lying is unknown, implying naivety or isolation.
In plain terms
I said something false in a place without words for falsehood.
What can you take from it?
Language shapes moral concepts.

Where it applies

  • discussing language
  • exploring truth
  • noting culture

Putting it to work

  • examine language
  • question truth
  • study culture

Questions to consider

  • Can you lie without a word for it?
  • Does language define morality?

Another view

The claim that a culture lacks words for lying is likely metaphorical.

More from Jonathan Swift

  1. He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air…

    Permalink to quote #60
  2. Poor Nations are hungry, and rich Nations are proud, and Pride and Hunger will ever be at Variance.

    Permalink to quote #62
  3. And he gave it for his opinion, that whosoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, wou…

    Permalink to quote #59

Related quotes

  1. Sometimes we get so caught up in language, and 'this' word and 'that' word, that we lose site of the bigger problems in the world. At one time, the word 'Bitch…

    George ClintonGeorge Clinton quote #7
  2. I myself have not met a self-confessed liberal since the late fifties (and even then it was a tacky thing to admit, like coming from the middle class or the Mi…

    Wilfrid SheedWilfrid Sheed quote #15
  3. How did Memogate get a 'gate'? How did Nipplegate get a 'gate'? We invaded a country with the wrong information, and Janet Jackson's tit got a 'gate'. Who give…

    Jon StewartJon Stewart quote #17