Punning is a talent which no man affects to despise, but he that is without it.

The line circulates as a defense of punning: people who publicly dismiss puns are often doing so because they lack the ability to make them. The earliest located appearances are in posthumous biographical material about Swift (mid-1750s) and then as a direct quotation attributed to Swift in a 1764 newspaper advertisement.

The saying argues that contempt for puns is usually performative and motivated by insecurity; only those who can’t produce puns themselves claim to despise them.

He greatly excelled in punning; a talent, which, he said, no man affected to despise, but those that were without it.

Punning is a talent which no man affects to despise, but he that is without it.

Puns are disliked by none but those who can’t make them.

Nobody dislikes a pun but he who cannot make one.