Aphorisms

[Botnst]

From Aphorisms Arise Truth, So From Truth Arise Aphorisms

By JAY PARINI

As Umberto Eco says in a lively essay on Oscar Wilde, published in On Literature (2004), "There is nothing more difficult to define than an aphorism." The word itself, he tells us, comes from the Greek, meaning "putting something aside as an offering." It is also an "oblation." To most people, it calls to mind a short and possibly witty saying that may have something wise to suggest about the nature of life. As with Wilde, such maxims have a paradoxical or (at least) unexpected quality, as when Wilde (in The Picture of Dorian Gray) writes: "An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style."

Eco does not believe that an aphorism needs to be witty, but for its real lovers, that paradoxical twist is difficult to relinquish. We like it when an apparently wise saying goes against the grain, reversing the usual expectations, as when Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort, a French aphorist of the 18th century, wrote: "A man must swallow a toad every morning if he wishes to be sure of finding nothing still more disgusting before the day is over."

Chamfort's line can be found in Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists, recently published by Bloomsbury USA. James Geary, writer and editor, has been at the aphoristic fount before, in The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism (Bloomsbury, 2005). Rich in surprises, that marvelous book opened the possibilities for the more comprehensive Guide. Many of the aphorists in the new book will be known to everyone: Plato and Cicero, Michel de Montaigne, Dr. Johnson, Ben Franklin, Mark Twain, Wilde, and so forth. But the real pleasures lie in the volume's unexpected treasures: Chamfort, Ludwig Marcuse, Karol Bunsch, Faina Ranevskaya, Ali Ibn Abi Talib, Benjamin Whichcote, and countless others.

Quoting Franklin Roosevelt, Geary begins by saying that his motto in compiling the anthology was: "Be sincere, be brief, be seated." As a result, he does not linger on any one aphorist and offers a brief but entertaining biography of each, with a selection of essential aphorisms followed by a fascinating section called "Parallel Lines." Aphorists like all creative writers to some extent, are gifted plagiarists; that is, they feed on language, taking and transforming what went before them, giving fresh life to what was taken. Ideas belong to no one, only specific language does. And so aphorists take a whiff of what's in the air and put a name to what they smell. Thus we read in Ecclesiastes: "A fool's voice is known by a multitude of words." Centuries later, Ezra Pound says: "The less we know, the longer our explanations."

more at: http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=gfjvzpcdcnycd2dpp39cnl8fs7w2vb49

[unkl300d]

How happy are the pessimists ! What joy is theirs when they have proved that there is no joy !

Have patience with the quarrelsomeness of the stupid. It is not easy to comprehend that one does not comprehend.

"The wiser yeilds !" -- an immortal phrase. It establishes the unniversal supremacy of folly.

The poor never estimate as a virtue the generosity of the rich.

Fools usually know best that which the wise despair of ever comprehending.

There is only one proof of ability -- action.

by Marie Ebner-Eschenbach (1892)

[tankdriver]

Originally Posted by unkl300d

Fools usually know best that which the wise despair of ever comprehending.

I like this one. The more someone is sure of something, the less I think of them.

[Palangi]

Originally Posted by tankdriver

I like this one. The more someone is sure of something, the less I think of them.

Are you sure about that ??

[Botnst]

Originally Posted by Palangi

Are you sure about that ??

Depends.

[A264172]

That's a neat article.

I found a good one:

"Write a wise saying and your name will live forever" -Anonymous

[Botnst]

Originally Posted by A264172

That's a neat article.

I found a good one:

"Write a wise saying and your name will live forever" -Anonymous

Excellent!

[Benzadmiral]

"Worry is a dividend paid to disaster before it is due."
( -- Ian Fleming)

"Once is happenstance; twice is coincidence; the third time it's enemy action."
( -- Fleming again, in "Goldfinger")

"Always yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again."
(-- Wilde? No, come to think of it: Robert Heinlein!)

"The only difference between a minor flirtation and a lifelong passion is that the flirtation lasts a little longer."
( -- Wilde, I think, though I'm not certain of the exact wording; somebody check me)

[Dee8go]

I had some aphorisms on my rose bushes once, but I put some insecticide on them and they were gone after a couple of days . . . .

[unkl300d]

may have been Dem strategists on bush.............

[Botnst]

Uh-oh.

[BENZ-LGB]

Originally Posted by Dee8go

I had some aphorisms on my rose bushes once, but I put some insecticide on them and they were gone after a couple of days . . . .

[cjlipps]

"Good" is the worst enemy of "Great".

You can't buy peace of mind but people sell it every day and then rue the transaction.

Never argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and then beat you with experience.

[Dee8go]

My previous boss made me painfully aware of the fact that, "You cannot reason with an irrational man." I said that . . .