Philosophy
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Among the many things that human beings are intolerant of are aphorisms. Human nature is biased in favour of certainty rather than uncertainty and simplicity rather than complexity. We like things to be black and white, true or false, good or bad. But that’s not the function of aphorisms. Just as few maxims are true in every respect, so also with aphorisms. (For instance, Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.) Thus, an aphorism can almost never be taken at face value. (For instance, Every nation has the government it deserves.) It’s no wonder they test our patience.

Moreover an aphorism is always prepared to sacrifice accuracy in order to emphasize a point. (For instance, The mind is always the dupe of the heart.) It tries to draw our attention to something we may have forgotten, or overlooked, or has simply never occurred to us. (For instance, The test of good manners is to be patient with bad ones.)

The aphorism is often cynical and cynicism can alienate. (For instance, POLITICS: the conduct of public affairs for private advantage or LABOUR: one of the processes by which A acquires property for B.) But cynicism can be very instructive and, if you take it in the right spirit, enjoyable. (For instance, Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else.)

Francis Bacon maintained that the aphorism—the pithy, arresting statement—was useful precisely because it doesn’t explain itself. (For instance, One must choose in life between boredom and suffering or To be angry is to be wrong.) In its incompleteness and suggestiveness, it invites ‘men to inquire further’ into a subject.

Aphorism, like metaphor, is inescapable. Often it’s rejected only when it hits us at a bad angle and we say, “What a load of garbage!” (For instance, The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he doesn’t know how to stay quietly in his room.) But we’d be lost without it. According to a Canadian poet, ‘Aphorisms give you more for your time and money than any other literary form.’

In conclusion, an aphorism is the pithy packaging of deep wisdom. (For instance, Only the spirit gives life; the flesh is of no avail.) It’s the consequence of a long process of analysis and it forces the reader (or listener) to wrestle with it and be creative with it. (For instance, The first condition of right thought is right feeling.) To be liberally educated, in my opinion, means being “open” to every aphorism, however strongly we react against it. More particularly it means going out of our way to discover its usefulness, never being dismissive, and sometimes being indulgent. (For instance, Democracy is the worship of jackals by jackasses.)

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