Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.

The sentence stands among Swift’s “Thoughts on Various Subjects”, a loose collection of maxims, anecdotes and jokes. Its neighbours on the page are mostly sharp or bawdy. Just before it: “All panegyricks are mingled with an infusion of poppy”, and “Matrimony has many children; Repentance, Discord, Poverty, Jealousy, Sickness, Spleen, Loathing”. Just after: “The two maxims of any great man at court, are, always to keep his countenance, and never to keep his word.” Amid this cynicism, the line on vision sounds almost like a prophet’s.

Jonathan Swift, the Anglo-Irish clergyman who became Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, is best known for Gulliver’s Travels (1726). He jotted down such thoughts over many years and published them among his miscellanies, some of them prepared with his friend Alexander Pope.

The paradox is the point: vision here is not eyesight but insight, the ability to perceive what others cannot yet see. The maxim is now a favourite of those who speak of leadership and creativity.

Thoughts on Various Subjects

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