Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac Part I

Aphorism 43: “Certainly you will bore others but do not be allowed to bore yourself!”

Full Quote: “I have held this rather dim and trusting personality together for a considerable length of time, and although I have certainly bored others I was not to be allowed to bore myself.” Chapter 1

Aphorism 44: “Drink tea with delicacy!”

Full Quote: “Leaning back in her chair, her cup and saucer raised to her chin, this lady drank her tea with some delicacy, … “ Chapter 1

Aphorism 45: “Acquire a proper sense of your own presence!”

Full Quote: “..as she went towards the stairs there seemed to be a sudden emanation of a rosy scent, signaling the sort of preparation made by someone with a proper sense of her own presence.” Chapter 2

Aphorism 46: “Enjoy contact with alien species!”

Full Quote: “ Edith acquiesced to this readily enough, not because of her plight, which she saw as irremediable but not entirely serious, but because Mrs Pusey present her with the opportunity to examine, and to enjoy, contact with an alien species.” Chapter 3

Anthony Trollope, The Vicar of Bullhampton Part I

Aphorism 39: “Be a man with an unlimited love of justice!”

Full Quote: “He was a man with an unlimited love of justice:…” Chapter Five

Aphorism 40: “Adhere to the well-bred ceremonies of life!”

Full Quote: “Not that Mr. Chamberlaine was a very old man, but that it suited his tastes and tone of mind to adhere to the well-bred ceremonies of life, so many of which went out of fashion when railroads came in.” Chapter 24.

Aphorism 41: “A man shouldn’t keep his own sores open!”

Full Quote: “The Longer I live the more convinced I become that a man shouldn’t keep his own sores open.” Chapter 27

Aphorism 42: “Dare to obey the instincts of your heart!”

Full Quote: “Mr. Brattle, think better of yourself, and dare to obey the instincts of your heart.”

Door Slogans Two

Aphorism 35: "Educate Hope!"

Full Quote: "...how this 'war on youth' permeates not only the malls but American secondary schools revealing some startling implications for school leaders that involves the privatization of social life, the corportization of time, and the possibility of educated hope." by Henry A. Giroux, Pennsylvania State University The Initiative Anthology Website, Feb. 28, 2003

Aphorism 36: "Know How to Suffer!"

Full Quote: They were tough they were cold and they knew how to suffer." by Samuel Abt, "Grand Tour, the Tour de France at 100 in Sky, July 2003, pps. 66-69.

Aphorism 37: "Test Your Imagination!"

Full Quote: "Koenig is a paddler who thinks expeditions should be enjoyed, not just endured, who sees his Kayak as a vehicle to take him places that test his imagination, not just his mettle." by Bob Marshall, The Times-Picayune, May 19, 2004

Aphorism 38: "A Master Never Measures!"

Full Quote: from "In Praise of the Gin Martini" by Al Martinez, a columnist at the Los Angeles Tames, taken from Bon Appetit, Wine & Spirits, April 2003.

Victory by Joseph Conrad, Part I

Aphorism 30: “Victory, the shinning goal of noble effort!” page vii

Aphorism 31: “Thinking, the great enemy of perfection!” page X

Aphorism 32: “Inspiration is sometimes just getting out of the way!” page X

Aphorism 33: “Unperturbed polite interest!”

Full Quote: “Morrison was swiftly reproachful in his answer, and there came a pause, Morrison perhaps interrogating his conscience and Heyst preserving a mien of unperturbed, polite interest.” P. 13. The Modern Library, Doubleday, NY, 1921.

Aphorism 34: “God expects men to be self-reliant!”

Full Quote: “I believe in children praying—well women, too, but I rather think God expects men to be more self-reliant.” P. 13

Door Slogans, Buckley and Others

Note: The hobby of building Aphorisms started from my hobby of creating "door slogans" from interesting thoughts from various literary sources such as books, book reviews, and newspaper articles. Today's feature presents some of those slogans.

Aphorism 26: “Consecrate A Purpose!”

Full Quote: “Gandhi was right—like the Bhagavad—Gita—in saying that the whole of one’s resources must be mobilized to consecrate a purpose.” By William F. Buckley, Jr., Stained Glass, Doubleday, p. 69.

Aphorism 27: “Deinstitutionalize Knowledge!”

Full Quote: “the problem with major league baseball, he said, is that it’s a self-populating institution. Knowledge is institutionalized.” The quote is by Vorus McCracken, baseball statistician as quoted by Michael Lewis in Moneyball, W.W. Norton’s Company, N.Y. Lewis’s quote came from www://baseballprospectus.com

Aphorism 28: “The Virtue of Disinterestedness!”

Full Quote: “A presiding spirit in this book is Matthew Arnold, who not only urged us to teach the best that has been thought and said but also advocated the virtue of disinterestedness, which allows for curiosity without dogmatism, skepticism without nihilism, conviction without fanaticism.” A book review: Smiling through the Cultural Catastrophe by Jeffrey Hart, Wall Street Journal, Sept. 21, 2001.

Aphorism 29: “Blurting Is A Form of Bravery!”

Reference: Quote by Susan Larson, Book editor, The Times-Picayune from her book review of Unless by Carol Shields, Sunday, April 28, 2002

Keats and Levine

Aphorism Twenty-two: “Strengthen your ‘poetry’ by direct contact with experience!”

Full quote: “His aim was to see more of the world so that he could strengthen his poetry with direct contact with experience.” From The Essential Keats selected by Philip Levine. Galahad Books, NY. 1993, p. 6.

Aphorism Twenty-three: “Periodically refresh belief in the value of art!”

Full quote: “He remains a wellspring to which all of us might go to refresh our belief in the value of this art.” p. 9

Aphorism Twenty-four: “The poetry of earth is never dead!”

Full quote: “On the Grasshopper and Cricket—The poetry of earth is never dead:”

Aphorism 25: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever!”

Full Quote: “From Endymion—A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.”

A guest intrudes with a pleasant maxim, Maxim III from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Aphorism1 is on vacation in Destin, FL and found The Ruaiyat of Omar Kyayyam as translated by Edward FitzGerald in a used book store. Khayyam's Maxim III seemed worthy of a guest appearance into a listing of aphorisms. Enjoy.

III
And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted--"Open then the Door!
You know how little while we have to stay,
And, once departed, may return no more."

Gautreaux, Neuwen, & Narden

Aphorism Eighteen: “It takes patience to know something well!”

Aphorism Nineteen: “Heed the directions found in personal fascinations!”

Full quote: “That’s one thing as a teacher I always emphasized—your personal fascinations are the most valuable thing you have, no matter what that fascination is…And I think it takes patience to know something.” By Tim Gautreaux, author of The Missing as quoted by Susan Larson, Times Picayune Newspaper, March 2009

Aphorism Twenty: “Obey the laws of imagination!”

Full Quote: “Like other writers, he (Anthony Trollope) had to compromise between his desire to sell and his need to obey the laws of his own imagination..” by Jane Narden, He Knew She Was Right, S. Illinois U. Press, 1989, p. 21

Aphorism Twenty-one: “Develop the discipline of gratitude!”

Full Quote: “Hillary recalled that one simple phrase in Neuwen’s book struck like an epiphany, ‘the discipline of gratitude’” from Her Way, 2007, Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta, Jr. Little Brown, NY. Quoted by Hillary from The Return of the Periodical Son by Henri Neuwen.

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, Part One

Quote Fourteen: “Dedicate to high thinking!”

Full Quote: “She..represented the cultivation, good manners, consideration for others, cleanliness of body and brightness of mind and dedication to high thinking that were the goals of outsiders like me..” Random House, 1987, p. 19.

Quote Fifteen: “Experience often the expression of civilized cuisine!”

Full Quote: “Chicken Kiev, saltimbocca, escalope de veau, whatever it was, it was the expression of a civilized cuisine..” p. 33

Quote Sixteen: “Show dignity when cornered!”

Full Quote: “She has great dignity and presence when she is corned, and when she reads that antique poetry she can bring tears to your eyes.” p. 38.

Quote Seventeen: “Spiritual poverty is a choice!”

Full Quote: “Or else they stay home and just grumble and knock and talk about spiritual poverty.” p. 39.

Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad, Part One

Aphorism Ten: “Possess ability in the abstract!”

Full Quote: “When a water-clerk who possesses ability in the abstract has also the advantage of having been brought up to the sea, he is worth to his employer a lot of money and some humouring.” Harper & Row, Perennial Classics, 1965 (1899), p. 4.

Aphorism Eleven: “Seek a lower achievement if it will do the turn!”

Full Quote: “Otherwise he was rather glad he had not gone into the cutter, since a lower achievement had served the turn.” P. 7

Aphorism Twelve: “We determine our own moral identity!”

Full Quote: “It was solemn, and a little ridiculous, too, as they always are, those struggles of an individual trying to save from the fire his idea of what his moral identity should be…” p. 58.

Aphorism Thirteen: “There are as many shipwrecks as there are men!”

Full Quote: “Of course, as with belief, though, love, hate, conviction, or even the visual aspect of material things, there are as many shipwrecks as there are men..” p. 86.