# Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish writer and satirist. --- [[2025-0318. Of the commonplace book, Johnathan Swift wrote, 'a provident poet cannot subsist without, for this proverbial reason, that great wits have short memories.'|Of the commonplace book, Johnathan Swift wrote, 'a provident poet cannot subsist without, for this proverbial reason, that great wits have short memories.']][^1] He called the system of ‘commonplacing’ a “supplemental memory”.[^2] - *See:* [[Commonplace books]] [^1]: Sam Dolbear, ‘[[Dolbear, 'John Locke's Method for Common-Place Books (1685)', 2019.|John Locke's Method for Common-Place Books (1685)]]’, *The Public Domain Review*, 8 May 2019, https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/john-lockes-method-for-common-place-books-1685/. [^2]: Sam Dolbear, ‘[[Dolbear, 'John Locke's Method for Common-Place Books (1685)', 2019.|John Locke's Method for Common-Place Books (1685)]]’, *The Public Domain Review*, 8 May 2019, https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/john-lockes-method-for-common-place-books-1685/.