"The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes"

This quote by Jonathan Swift is a metaphor for the concept of stoicism, which is the practice of accepting life's hardships and not enabling oneself to be controlled by emotions. Swift is recommending that trying to suppress our desires in order to meet our needs is a not practical and ineffective solution. He compares it to cutting off one's feet in order to get shoes, which is clearly a ridiculous service. Swift is implying that it is difficult to totally suppress our desires, which it is much better to discover a more useful option to our issues. He is suggesting that instead of trying to reduce our desires, we must concentrate on discovering a method to fulfill our needs without sacrificing our desires.