Aphorisms

[anastrophe]

I realized that there's really no 'right' place for this on ForumGarden. there's no 'philosophy' forum, and these fall under philosophy, after a fashion - not specifically religion. but anyway.

aphorisms are 'nuggets of wisdom'. typically brief, pithy little bits of information pertaining to the nature of existence. they can be quite broad ranging. i love 'em - maybe it's due to my short attention span!

so, herewith, a few aphorisms that strike my fancy. just for the hell of it.

Those who are ready to praise others usually take praise from others with a grain of salt. On the other hand, those who praise others reluctantly accept praise from others at its face value. Thus the less magnanimous a soul, the more readily does it succumb to flattery.

-Eric Hoffer



My reaction to porno films is as follows: After the first ten minutes, I want to go home and screw. After the first twenty minutes, I never want to screw again as long as I live.
-Erica Jong



Don't let me catch anyone talking about the Universe in my department.
-Ernest Rutherford



When taking a new job, beware of those who are too friendly too soon.
-Joel R. Stegall



There is sublime thieving in all giving. Someone gives us all he has and we are his.
-Eric Hoffer



Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.
-Oscar Wilde



Cloquet hated reality but realized it was still the only place to get a good steak.
-Woody Allen



If you are lost in the woods, always travel downstream. If you are lost in the astral plane, always travel toward the light.
-Pat Morningstar



Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
-Eric Hoffer



I was once thrown out of a mental hospital for depressing the other patients.
-Oscar Levant



All know that the drop merges into the ocean, but few know that the ocean merges into the drop.
-Kabir



Tall candidates with short names get elected twice as often as short candidates with long names.
-Tom Wilbur



As a rule of thumb, it's better to show up for an appointment ten minutes early but a day late, than an hour late on the right day.
-Alex Fraser



To have a grievance is to have a purpose in life. A grievance can almost serve as a substitute for hope; and it not infrequently happens that those who hunger for hope give their allegiance to him who offers them a grievance.
-Eric Hoffer

[Lon]

You like Eric Hoffer, dontcha?

[anastrophe]

Originally Posted by Lon

You like Eric Hoffer, dontcha?

yep, my favorite. the man, his life, and his utterances, are fascinating.

[Suresh Gupta]

Really nice. Can you elaborate on the one by Kabir?

[anastrophe]

Originally Posted by Suresh Gupta

Really nice. Can you elaborate on the one by Kabir?

the quote is all i know - it's from a book i have, suitably titled zen to go, bite sized bits of wisdom from the East and the West - from the Buddha to Yogi Berra.

a lovely little book. here are a few more specifically from that title:

When you are at sea, keep clear of the land.

-Publilius Syrus



A person who says, "I'm enlightened" probably isn't.
-Baba Ram Dass


Apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?
-Harold Pinter


It's the nothing that makes us something, it's what we miss that hits the mark.
-7-Up jingle


Clay is molded to make a vessel, but the utility of the vessel lies in the space where there is nothing...Thus, taking advantage of what is, we recognize the utility of what is not.
-Lao Tzu


I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.
-Frank Lloyd Wright


All composite things decay; work out your salvation with diligence.
-The Buddha


What a miserable thing life is: you're living in clover, only the clover isn't good enough.
-Bertolt Brecht


Tom Seaver: Hey, Yogi, what time is it?
Yogi Berra: You mean now?


Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.
-Andre Gide


No object is mysterious. The mystery is your eye.
-Elizabeth Bowen


Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-Pablo Picasso

[koan]

What a great thread! There is chicken soup for the soul in Body Mind & Soul but we should definately look into philosophy forum.

What a nice thread to read in the morning. Lots to think about for the day.
I like Hoffer the best of all these particular aphorisms as well.

[anastrophe]

All of the following are by Eric Hoffer. They were published in 1954 in The Passionate State of Mind and other aphorisms by Eric Hoffer.

These are just some of the ones i find illuminating, or challenging or that give me pause. There are 280 of these in the book. Highly recommended. His ascerbic take on modern man is fascinating. As i've mentioned, he himself was fascinating - by the age of five he could read both german and english. At seven, for reasons unknown, he went blind. His eyesight returned just as inexplicably when he was fifteen. He had no formal education of any kind. While writing his books, he worked as a migrant farm laborer, dishwasher, gold prospector, and finally as a longshoreman in San Francisco until his death in 1983.

If what we profess is not an organic part of our understanding, we are likely to profess it with vehemence and intolerance. Intolerance is the "Do Not Touch" sign on something that cannot bear touching. We do not mind having our hair ruffled, but we will not tolerate any familiarity with the toupee which covers our baldness.


Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know. One often obtains a clue to a person's nature by discovering the reasons for his or her imperviousness to certain impressions.


It is by their translation into mere words and almost meaningless symbols that ideas move people and stir them to action. This deintellectualization of ideas is the work of the pseudo-intellectuals. The self-styled intellectual who is impotent with pen and ink hungers to write history with sword and blood.


We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.


When the weak want to give an impression of strength they hint meaningfully at their capacity for evil. It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.


By discovering our own blemishes in others we as it were assert our kinship with others. Malice is thus a social faculty.


To find the cause of our ills in something outside of ourselves, something specific that can be spotted and eliminated, is a diagnosis that cannot fail to appeal. To say that the cause of our troubles is not in us but in the Jews, and pass immediately to the extermination of the Jews, is a prescription likely to find a wide acceptance.


When a situation is so unprecedented that no amount of knowledge or experience is adequate to master it, then the ignorant and inexperienced are more fit to deal with it than the learned and experienced. The unknown and untried give as it were a special fitness to the unfit.


To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.


There is radicalism in all getting, and conservatism in all keeping. Lovemaking is radical, while marriage is conservative. So, too, get-rich-quick capitalism is radical, while a capitalism intent solely on keeping what it already has is conservative. Radicalism itself ceases to be radical when absorbed mainly in preserving its control over a society or an economy.


Good judgment in our dealings with others consists not in seeing through deceptions and evil intentions but in being able to waken the decency dormant in every person.




No one is truly literate who cannot read his own heart.

[capt_buzzard]

Friendship and community are, first of all, inner qualities.Henry Newman

How good and how pleasant it is that brothers sit together. Psalm 133

In my friends, I find my second self. Oscar Wilde

[BabyRider]

Just emailed my dad and said "If you never go into the garden again," (I've been bugging him to join) "go there now and read the Aphorisms thread." Great read Anastrophe. Thanks!

[lady cop]

BOTHWELL TAUGHT ME THIS VERSE, I AM NOT CERTAIN OF AUTHOR, IT'S ENTITLED "IF"

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools...------------------------------ALSO, I LOVE THIS LITTLE BIT FROM CHURCHILL, JUST A GREAT WITTICISM REALLY...Lady Astor: "Winston, if I were your wife I'd put poison in your coffee."
Winston: "Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it."