Robert Saltzman

An aphorism is a pithy observation that contains a general truth. Aphoristic words condense a complex idea into a brief, exact, memorable form.

Aphorism doesn’t build a case; it flashes. Shining for a moment, it either lands or it doesn’t.

An aphorism is both too little and too much—too little to be explanatory, too much to dismiss.

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” —Rumi

Sometimes an aphorism enacts an insight rather than describing one—a linguistic event rather than a proposition.

“Every word is a stain upon the silence.” —Emil Cioran

Sometimes an aphorism asserts an entire worldview in four words—leaving no room for escape or elaboration.

“Hell is other people.” —Jean-Paul Sartre

Peter Hahn, Angels in the Cellar:

Before I settled on the vineyard, my life was intensely cerebral, sometimes physical, but tremendously lacking in the sensual. These days, however, I’ll find myself unconsciously bringing any number of things up to my tongue to taste or to my nose for a whiff. Walking through a forest, I’ll pull a few pine needles or leaves from a tree, roll them between my palms, and smell. I’ll pick up a handful of soil and do the same. At the farmer' market, as I go down the stalls selecting my fruit and vegetables, I’ll inevitably and discreetly lift one of each to my nose before filling my basket. Not only will doing this reveal something to me about the ripeness of the fruit or flavour of the vegetables but it also just makes the whole experience of food shopping richer. And while I have always enjoyed food as more than just fuel, it has now become a keen pleasure.

Consciously engaging my senses is something I need to be doing more.

Adam Kotsko:

You and I are not voting on what will happen by having an opinion. The world has never worked like that, and it definitely doesn’t work like that in the Trumpocene.

Alan Jacobs:

It’s especially important to remember that people love hating their enemies — they love that more than anything. So the worst thing you could do to them, as far as they’re concerned, is to diminish their hatreds. To those of us who don’t happen to share those hatreds, their behavior might look like wearying, pointless repetition. But from the inside, those hatreds are the primary instrument of myth confirmation. They give security, and people want security.

Nicely observed.

There are no “side effects.” There are only effects you like and effects you don’t like. To say otherwise is merely marketing.

Wendell Berry: “There are no sacred and unsacred places. There are only sacred and desecrated places.”

Rhyd Wildermuth:

The world is a mess and will only get worse. But that world isn’t our world. That world — the world of wars and strife and empty glittering things — has no place for beauty and no place for us. Instead, all that is possible and all that is powerful are the worlds we create around us, the sanctuaries we build for the distinguished guests who arrive to create with us. Not one sanctuary and not one garden, but many sanctuaries and many gardens. Connected and transversed by the flights of birds and the commutes of hares, not one world, but many, many worlds built by each of us and where we welcome each other also as distinguished guests.

Kenneth S. Cohen, The Way of Qigong:

The Chinese are fond of repeating, “To relax, you must be tranquil.” And we need to regard relaxation as a process of surrendering to a deeper wisdom, rather than acquiring, through effort, a new ability. Developing large muscles requires effort; cultivating relaxation requires letting go.

“It is important to have a secret, a premonition of things unknown.”

Future Jeremy: if you ever get the “oh my, my lord” earworm again, this is its source. “Shooby” by Nicole C. Mullen