The Oxford Book of Aphorisms

The Oxford Book of Aphorisms

Author: John Gross

Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 9780192804563

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Gathers witty quotations about nature, religion, fear, hope, fame, wealth, politics, marriage, happiness, knowledge, language, and death


The Book of Aphorisms (Kitab al-Hikam)

The Book of Aphorisms (Kitab al-Hikam)

Author: Ibn 'Ata'illah Al-Iskandari

Publisher: The Other Press

Published: 2018-05-25

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9675062614

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This book is one of the more widely distributed works of Ibn 'Ata'illah and serves as an ethical guide to those seeking God. It is a collection of short spiritual sayings each containing profound meaning driven from the Qur'an and Sunnah, and deals with issues related to tawhid, ethics and day-to-day conduct.


The Viking Book of Aphorisms

The Viking Book of Aphorisms

Author: Wystan Hugh Auden

Publisher: Barnes & Noble Publishing

Published: 1962

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 9780880290562

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"More than 3000 selections from more than 400 authors" -- Dust jacket.


Everything

Everything

Author: Aaron Haspel

Publisher:

Published: 2015-11-19

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 9780692582596

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Aphorisms are often derided as trivial, yet most people rule their lives with five or six of them. This collection contains five or six hundred, some of which you wouldn't want to rule your life with. "The Rochefoucauld of the Twitter generation has arrived. Aaron Haspel's crisp, curt, cold-eyed aphorisms pack the maximum amount of truth into the minimum amount of space - and do it with elegance and wit." -Terry Teachout, drama critic, The Wall Street Journal "Delightfully witty, painfully true, and thoroughly enjoyable reading...a gem on every page." -Megan McArdle, Bloomberg columnist and author of The Up Side of Down "Aaron Haspel is good, very good." -Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Antifragile and The Black Swan "My favorite aphorist of the 21st century." -Colin Marshall, Boing Boing "Extremely good...wry, wise rules." -James Geary, author of The World in a Phrase and editor of Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists


Essays and Aphorisms

Essays and Aphorisms

Author: Arthur Schopenhauer

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2004-08-26

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0141921757

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One of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century, Schopenhauer (1788-1860) believed that human action is determined not by reason but by 'will' - the blind and irrational desire for physical existence. This selection of his writings on religion, ethics, politics, women, suicide, books and many other themes is taken from Schopenhauer's last work, Parerga and Paralipomena, which he published in 1851. These pieces depict humanity as locked in a struggle beyond good and evil, and each individual absolutely free within a Godless world, in which art, morality and self-awareness are our only salvation. This innovative - and pessimistic - view has proved powerfully influential upon philosophy and art, directly affecting the work of Nietzsche, Wittgenstein and Wagner among others.


The Fall at Home

The Fall at Home

Author: Don Paterson

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Published: 2018-10-02

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 0571338232

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Aphorisms have been described as 'the obscure hinterland between poetry and prose' (New Yorker) - short pithy statements that capture the essence of the human condition in all its shades. In this New and Selected, master of the form Don Paterson brings the best examples from his three previous volumes together with ingenious new material relevant to today's world. Moving and mischievous, canny and profound - these wide-ranging observations of no more than one or two lines demonstrate that the aphorism is the perfect form for our times. Consciousness is the turn the universe makes to hasten its own end. * Agnosticism is indulged only by those who have never suffered belief. * Poet: someone in the aphorism business for the money.


The Faber Book of Aphorisms

The Faber Book of Aphorisms

Author: Wystan Hugh Auden

Publisher:

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 9780571095193

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Aphorisms are not witticisms or epigrams, but general truths succinctly stated. This anthology contains 3000 quotations from a wide variety of aphorists ranging from Heraclitus to Ogden Nash, as well as Jane Austen, Pascal, Freud, Goethe, the Duke of Wellington, Shaw, Jean Cocteau and many more.


Short Flights

Short Flights

Author: James Lough

Publisher: IPG

Published: 2015-12-01

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 1936182904

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A compilation of satirical and philosophical aphorisms from modern writers on the cutting edge of their craft A unique anthology that draws together the work and musings of our leading pioneers of short-form writing, this book features writers who take this time-honored literary form to new heights. Concise, wise, and sometimes terse or humorous, aphorisms are short phrases that are often instructional or moralistic. With a brief introductory piece from each author and a generous sampling of each individual's particular take on the aphorism, the reader is presented with a vast trove of wit, wisdom, insight, and inspiration, as well as new ways to look at language, words, and writing. From "Nothing dirtier than old soap" to "He doesn't need imagination—he's got money," the writers expound upon their favorite adages. The contributors range from prize-winning poets Charles Simic and Stephen Dobyns to bestselling authors like James Geary, David Shields, and experimental writers such as Olivia Dresher and Yahia Lababidi. Short Flights is sure to intrigue and delight all lovers of literature, language, and wordplay.


A Theory of the Aphorism

A Theory of the Aphorism

Author: Andrew Hui

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-11-17

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0691210756

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Aphorisms-- or philosophical short sayings--appear everywhere, from Confucius to Twitter, the Buddha to the Bible, Heraclitus to Nietzsche. Yet despite this ubiquity, the aphorism is the least studied literary form. What are its origins? How did it develop? How do religious or philosophical movements arise from the enigmatic sayings of charismatic leaders? And why do some of our most celebrated modern philosophers use aphoristic fragments to convey their deepest ideas? In A Theory of the Aphorism, Andrew Hui crisscrosses histories and cultures to answer these questions and more. With clarity and precision, Hui demonstrates how aphorisms-- ranging from China, Greece, and biblical antiquity to the European Renaissance and nineteenth century--encompass sweeping and urgent programs of thought. Constructed as literary fragments, aphorisms open new lines of inquiry and horizons of interpretation. In this way, aphorisms have functioned as ancestors, allies, or antagonists to grand systems of philosophy. Encompassing literature, philology, and philosophy, the history of the book and the history of reading, A Theory of the Aphorism invites us to reflect anew on what it means to think deeply about this pithiest of literary forms.


The Bed of Procrustes

The Bed of Procrustes

Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2010-11-30

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0679643680

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The author of the modern classics The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, and Antifragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb expresses major ideas in ways you least expect in this collection of aphorisms and meditations—now expanded with fifty percent more material than the hardcover. The Bed of Procrustes takes its title from the Greek myth of a man who made his visitors fit his bed to perfection, either by stretching them or by cutting their limbs. It represents Taleb’s view of modern civilization’s hubristic side effects—modifying humans to satisfy technology, blaming reality for not fitting economic models, inventing diseases to sell drugs, defining intelligence as what can be tested in a classroom, and convincing people that employment is not slavery. Playful and irreverent, these aphorisms will surprise you by exposing self-delusions you have been living with but never recognized. With a rare combination of pointed wit and potent wisdom, Taleb plows through human illusions, contrasting the classical values of courage, elegance, and erudition with the modern diseases of nerdiness, philistinism, and phonies.