Category: Aphorisms by Others
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Two Pipe Quotations
My referrers' list points me to this post whence I snagged these two delightful quotations: The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher, and shuts up the mouth of the foolish; it generates a style of conversation, contemplative, thoughtful, benevolent, and unaffected. William Makepeace Thackeray A pipe is the fountain of contemplation, the…
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De Fato
Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt. The fates lead the willing; they drag the unwilling. Seneca's Latin version of a saying by Cleanthes preserved by Epictetus. Related articles Pseudo-Latin French Bullshit: The Cartesian Castle Happiness Maxims (2013 Version)
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On Duty: Commentary on an Aphorism by Henri-Frederic Amiel
"Duty has the virtue of making us feel the reality of a positive world while at the same time detaching us from it." (From Journal Intime) This is a penetrating observation, and a perfect specimen of the aphorist's art. It is terse, true, but not trite. The tip of an iceberg of thought, it invites…
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Nicolás Gómez Dávila on the Vatican II Church
Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913-1994) is an outstanding aphorist of a decidedly conservative, indeed reactionary, bent. What follows are some of his observations on the Catholic Church of the Second Vatican Council. I found them here thanks to Karl White. I've added a couple of comments in blue. The phenomena of the decay of Catholicism are…
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Forever Reading . . .
. . . never read. (Schopenhauer) Correction (16 September): Schopenhauer is not the source; he is quoting Alexander Pope. Related articles Schopenhauer on Islam, "The Saddest and Poorest Form of Theism"
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Temptation
A striking one or two sentence formulation taken from a wider context is not an aphorism, strictly speaking. But I'm in a loose and liberal mood. So I present for your consideration and delectation the following sentence from Paul Ludwig Landsberg (1901-1944). It is from his essay "The Moral Problem of Suicide," translated from the…
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Nulla Dies Sine Linea
"No day without a line." No day without a line even if the line is that no day should be without one.
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The Essential Sermon
"The essential sermon is one's own existence." Søren Kierkegaard, Journals, #1056 Related articles Why Keep a Journal? Introverts and Inwardness
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Old Carl
It must have been the fall of '72. Old Carl and I were sitting in his Culver City flophouse room drinking Brew 102 after a day's manual labor . He delivered himself of a line not to be forgotten. "Bill, once I was limber all over but stiff in one place. Now it's the other…
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Safe Speech
"No man speaketh safely but he that is glad to hold his peace. " (Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Chapter XX.) Excellent advice for Christian and non-Christian alike. Much misery and misfortune can be avoided by simply keeping one's mouth shut. That playful banter with your female student that you could not resist indulging…
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Hitchens on Conversion
Christopher Hitchens, Mortality, Twelve, 2012, p. 91: If I convert it's because it's better that a believer dies than that an atheist does. Witty unto the end. But in the end, what does wit get you? One last vain flash of brilliance and then extinction — or judgment.
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A Fool and His Coat
A fool can put on his coat better than a wise man can put it on for him. (anon. via Sowell)
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H. L. Mencken on the Perfection of Democracy
"As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron." –…
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Die Like a Man
Albert Camus, The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt, tr. A. Bower, Vintage 1991, p. 15, French original published by Gallimard in 1951: Better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees. Good advice if one can take it without false heroism and existentialist hyperventilation.
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Beauty and the Beholder
Asinus asino, et sus sui pulcher. An ass is beautiful to an ass, and a pig to a pig.