Aphorisms: Gifted One-Liners

An aphorism may be a polished and pithy piece of distilled philosophy. Or it could just be in the words of the 19th-century American writer and cynic Ambrose Bierce predigested wisdom. Aphorisms: they are what you make them and what you make of them perhaps. In these lively amusing and thought-provoking pages writer Kelvin Roy offers aphorisms from down the ages and for all occasions. He has accumulated smart one-liners or wry observations from an impressively broad cast of characters which includes unlikely guests at the same table: Heraclitus Lao Tzu Michelangelo inevitably Oscar Wilde and somewhat improbably Keith Richards. Which proves that aphorisms are like the most shaded part of your anatomy everyones got one. Roy has collected collated and created aphorisms; he lays them out for all to see herds them into pens of pensiveness and never labors aphoristic alliteration... unlike some. This always-amusing collection illustrated by his young son (Living with a child is like living with a Zen master) includes aphorisms which can be conversation-stoppers are finely crafted wisdom to ponder or just a few words in a fast-paced world as he says in his instructive introduction. Most of these quips considered observations or off-the-cuff drolleries have the welcome economy of a koan in this time of information overload are open questions for an age when people want quick answers; they are wit for the Twitter age and sometimes a contemplative silence in the static and surface noise of the modern world. Of aphorisms Roy aphoristically observes The idea is to stimulate the maximum amount of thought with a minimum of words. And therein lies their reason for being. Aphorisms enlighten provoke make you laugh or simply function as smart one-liners to drop into a conversation. But as a wise man says in this marvelously compact book Beware the man who speaks in aphorisms.