Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind reception i… - Jonathan Swift

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.

Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.

So, naturalists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still to bit 'em;
And so proceed ad infinitum.
Thus every poet, in his kind,
Is bit by him that comes behind.

Pedantry is properly the over-rating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.

Raillery was to say something that at first appeared a reproach or reflection; but, by some turn of wit unexpected and surprising, ended always in a compliment, and to the advantage of the person it was addressed to. And surely one of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish we had rather left unsaid; nor can there anything be well more contrary to the ends for which people meet together, than to part unsatisfied with each other or themselves.