He who is ever on the make will never have it made. He will never be a 'made man.' There is a time to strive, and a time to be. Is the universe trying to get somewhere? It already is everywhere. Are you any less cosmic? If you think you have a Maker, is he not a 'made man'? And aren't you a chip off the old block?
Category: Aphorisms and Observations
Let It Lapse
If a relationship has a troubled past, no future, and a present that is merely the transition from the one to the other — let it lapse.
Is the King Ever Captured?
The dignity of the king allows no such thing. He never leaves the board during the game. When the game is over, however, he goes into the same box with the lowly pawns. Which is to say: all earthly dignity is as naught before the tribunal of the Great Equalizer.
Water Seeks its Level
Complain if you like about the quality of your colleagues, but had they been better they might not have hired you. It may be that you have a job because of your and their mediocrity.
Possessor Possessed
What I own is mine, but what is mine makes me in some measure theirs.
Appreciate What You Have
Appreciate what you have while you have it. An actual shack is better than a remembered or merely imagined or expected or merely possible palace. Do not allow the present and actual good to suffer diminution by comparison to the modally and temporally and spatially elsewhere.
This is it. This is your life. Right here and right now. If it is good, appreciate it. If it needs improving, act right here and right now to improve it, but without failing to appreciate the good that is here and now yours.
When the Goddess Caissa Becomes the She-Devil Impecunia
We patzers can sport with Caissa and her charms without too much harm. It is the very strong players, who yet fall short of the highest level, who run the greatest risk. Chess sucks them in then leaves them high and dry. The goddess Caissa becomes the she-devil Impecunia.
Relations With Relatives
Our relations with our relatives are too often like the relations of Arabs and Israelis: too much past, no future. But with the Arabs and Israelis it is even worse: too much history, not enough geography.
Tweet This
He who tweets is a twit whose brain will soon be fit only to flit.
Anecdotage
The last stop for the old raconteur.
A Prudent Assumption
It is prudent to assume that what can be taken the wrong way will be.
When to Psychologize
You are free to psychologize your opponent when his position is demonstrably false or incoherent. If his reasons are worthless, then you are justified in exposing the motives that drive his commitments.
A weapon of mass distraction.
Duty
My duty is my duty whether I am inclined to do it or not. Being inclined does not make it any less my duty; being disinclined does not make it any more.
High-Level Self-Denial
Going to the mat of meditation at the appointed time when the caffeine-induced riot of thoughts clamors for blogic expression.