Aphorisms by Steven Carter
Posted on July 9, 2008
Filed Under Aphorisms |
In his collection of aphorisms, 222: Aphorisms & Reflections, published by Rowman & Littlefield, Steven Carter writes that many of his sayings are “conversations” with aphorists and thinkers of the past. One aphorist Carter has done a lot of talking to is Ambrose Bierce; Carter penned The New Devil’s Dictionary, a kind of sequel to Bierce’s own The Devil’s Dictionary. “Parodying the aphorisms of a thinker smarter than oneself is pretty serious business,” Carter, an emeritus professor of English, writes. But he’s acquitted himself well in the few paraphrases of Benjamin Franklin he includes in the introduction to 222, like this one:
What you would really be, seem to be.
222 is just the first part of a trilogy; volumes two and three are in production, Carter says. Here are one or two aphorisms from 222:
Travel, v: To learn to stay put by going and coming the long way around in an effort to put distance between us and our shortcomings.
Duty isn’t burdensome because commanded, but is commanded because burdensome.
Anyone can make enemies. The trick is to make the right enemies, who, in the end, are as necessary for one’s happiness and well-being as the right friends.
Accountability to others always trumps—indeed, is a substitute for—accountability to oneself.
Was, v: The butterfly stage of Is.
Once abandoned, expect a bad habit to knock on your door; a good habit, never.
When an obligation becomes pleasurable it becomes a right; when a right becomes painful it becomes an obligation.
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