Aphorisms by Fred Lee
Posted on October 1, 2008
Filed Under Aphorisms |
Fred Lee says his blog, an almost daily posting of fresh aphorisms, “provides more than 100% of the daily recommended dosages of pessimism, negativity and ill-humor.” In his profile, he lists his nicknames as “the anti-fortune cookie,” his religion as “secular,” and his interests as “aphorisms.” His blog contains lots and lots of aphorisms, and lots of other types of slightly longer mullings over and ruminations. Mr. Lee is nothing if not prolific; the following are excerpted from postings for September, 2008 alone:
Observe closely how people treat their parents, especially when they think nobody’s watching.
You can’t ever get what you want and you can only have what you love. Therefore it is most melancholy to want love and almost absurd to love want.
I move closer to closeness, but distance is still but a short distance away.
If the event is memorable enough, the memory will generate novelty each time it returns.
Intellect is a matter of cultivation. Intelligence is a matter of dumb luck.
You disbelieve in Everything, but have not gone so far as to believe in Nothing.
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These are good aphorisms, I especially like the one about memory and the last one.
Melencholy, absurdity and memory, to address the second one which I find interesting and revealing, generate of course a great deal of poetry literature and aphorisms like this one, and the tragicomic view of life.
I disagree with the aphorism claiming intelligence is dumb luck -
intelligence is what you feed it: it should be a stricter diet and regime than most people are up for. Inherited factors implied by luck I really am against taking too seriously as too eugenic and biased towards the already privileged.
I have an aphorism: We would all do better if we would consider ourselves fortunate rather than lucky.
This is very conducive to having gratitude, which feels beautiful coming through one’s body and mind, for the past and present, rather than resentment for percieved unlucky times in the past and projection about some kind of more lucky future to mitigate fear in the present. Wall Street thought about luck rather than fortune, in both senses of the word, for a very good example.
Hi Lori,
I did not mean to imply that intelligence is genetic, although you’re right to pick up on that I was alluding to circumstances of birth as dumb luck.
I appreciate your distinction between fortune and luck and that you exemplified the difference more than defined it.