Aphorisms and Observations – Page 54

The Monkees are to the Beatles . . .

. . . as Maynard G. Krebs is to Neal Cassady.

(That works, doesn't it? With apologies to Davy Jones, RIP.)

Journeys and Preparations

We plan our journeys long and short. We lay our plans for trips abroad well in advance. And those who leave their homeland and emigrate to another country take special care. Why then are we so careless about the journey on which all must embark and none return?

"Because it is a journey into sheer nonexistence. One needn't be concerned about a future self that won't exist!"

Are you sure about that? Perhaps you are right; but how do you know? Isn't this a question meriting some consideration?

Why Wittgenstein was a Better Man than Russell

Russell worried about logic. Wittgenstein worried about logic and his sins.

It Passes All the Same

No matter how many times you remind yourself to seize the day, to enjoy the moment, to do what you are doing, to be here now, to live thoughtfully and deliberately, to appreciate what you have; no matter how assiduous the attempts to freeze the flow, fix the flux, stay the surge to dissolution, and contain the dissipation wrought by time's diaspora and the mind's incontinence — it passes all the same.

Idle Talk

Time was when I felt superior to those who lose themselves for hours in idle talk, the endless yap, yap, yap, about noth, noth, nothing. But superior to that superiority is benign indifference to the idlers, an indifference so indifferent that it permits a bit of engagement with them, not condescendingly, but in acknowledgement of our common humanity.

The World’s Chiaroscuro

The world's chiaroscuro is unbearable to some. They would be brought into the unmixed light or else let to expire into nothingness.

Fragment of a Credo

I cannot know whether my life makes ultimate sense. But I can live as if it does, and if I do I will live better than if I live as if it does not.

I cannot know whether my life is bounded by bodily birth and death. But I can live as if it is not, and if I do I will live better than if I live as if it is.

Homunculus

The soul anthropomorphized:

Enthymeme

A great mind is not upset by a petty matter. Therefore, our minds are petty.

Telescope and ‘Cerebroscope’

If God cannot appear through a telescope, why do you think that mind can appear through a 'cerebroscope'?

Socializing as Self-Denial

You don't really want to go to that Christmas party where you will eat what you don't need to eat, drink what you don't need to drink, and dissipate your inwardness in pointless chit-chat. But you were invited and your nonattendance may be taken amiss. So you remind yourself that self-denial is good and that it is useful from time to time to practice the art of donning and wearing the mask of a 'regular guy.'

For the step into the social is by dissimulation. Necessary to the art of life is knowing how to negotiate the social world and pass yourself off under various guises and disguises.

Category: Aphorisms and Observations