On Thread
A loose thread protruding from my favorite sweater. So this is what everything hangs by, this is what holds it all together. A thread can never relax; it shrivels if you cut it too much slack. Tension is the only thing that gives it shape, purpose. It gladly bears the stress even as it starts [...]
Aphorisms by Oleg Vishnepolsky
Oleg Vishnepolsky was one of the early technologists and researchers at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center in the 1980s, and was thus present at the creation of some of the critical advances that made the Internet possible. Some of his sayings come out of his corporate experience: “Good project management is building a novel out [...]
Aphorisms by Kanye West
Rap star Kanye West doesn’t read books. But he knows what he likes, and what he likes are aphorisms, or at least something that almost sort of kind of approximates aphorisms. Despite his aversion to the printed word, West has co-authored a book of “thoughts and theories,” according to Canada’s National Post. The book, Thank [...]
Oxymorons by Steven Carter
A truncated and dialectical form of the aphorism proper, kind of like the crushed cube a car becomes after it has been compressed in a junkyard, the oxymoron retains the paradox and provocation of the longer saying. Steven Carter (see his parables here; a posting about his aphorisms was lost in a catastrophic failure of [...]
On Edges
The center, we are told, should be our goal, both our starting point and our destination. But the fringes are far more interesting. It is here, on the periphery, where friction produces its most startling effects. It is here where everything rubs together, where boundaries blur, merge, become extended. Consider. From the tips of our [...]
Financial Aphorisms via Doug Rice
Tax preparation season has now passed, and surely we mourn that it is gone, but the trauma of this time put me in mind of financial aphorisms, spurred mostly by coming across the following quote from an auditor for the Inland Revenue, the U.K. tax authority: “The trick is to stop thinking of it as [...]
Aphorisms by Eric Nelson
Olivia Dresher alerts me to yet another wonderful aphorist from the pages of her excellent FragLit journal. Eric Nelson is a poet and professor of Writing and Linguistics at Georgia Southern University, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in creative writing. His publications include The Interpretation of Waking Life (University of Arkansas Press, 1991) [...]
Aphorisms by Sherry Dalton
A while back, Sherry Dalton pointed out some mis-attributions and typos in Geary’s Guide (which are duly noted on this site’s Corrections & Clarifications page) and sent along a copy of The Answerer, which she describes as “your personal adviser for the 21st century.” The Answerer is a kind of online oracle, a database of [...]
On Repetition
It doesn’t quite make sense. Why is repetition so interesting? Variety delights even as it disperses, but the thrill of the familiar persists. It’s like rehearsing a play; an actor gives depth and freshness to a role only by reciting the same lines over and over again, day after day after day. In the same [...]
Aphorisms by Michael Theune
Michael Theune describes himself as “a huge fan of aphorisms, probably bred into me by my upbringing in the church (I’m a preacher’s kid), which involved much exposure to proverbs and seductive gnomic utterances. I’ve been reading and thinking of them as an art form for more than fifteen years.” Theune is a self-confessed [...]
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