Existential Vacuums: Anita Brookner, Falling Slowly

Aphorism 127: “Regulate your disappointments!” Chapter Nine

Full Quote: “What was much worse was that Beatrice, whom she loved, was beginning to resemble their mother, not only physically, in certain gestures, but in her refusal to regulate her own disappointments.”

Aphorism 126: “Neglect is not easily forgiven!” Chapter Eight

Aphorism 125: “Be certain that there are no witnesses to bad thinking!” Chapter Seven

Full Quote: “Briefly she was glad that there were no witnesses to the evidence of bad thinking.”

Aphorism 124: “Emancipation and freedom often brings with them unsleeping anxiety!” Chapter Six

Full Quote: “That freedom had, she now saw, proved illusory. Emancipation, flight, had brought with them an unsleeping anxiety.”

Aphorism 123: “Survive your history!” Chapter one

Full Quote: “They had survived their history, and besides, they had no other choices.”

Aphorism 122: “A library allows communion with true achievement!” Chapter one

Full Quote: “She could not now decide whether a library, any library, was a way out or a way in, a way out of daily life which contained too much confusion and wariness, or a way in to silent communion with true achievement..”

Aphorisms of Espionage by John LeCarré

Aphorism 121: “It is such a mistake to put one’s trust in technique!” The Looking Glass War, Chapter 5

Full Quote: “It’s such a mistake, I always feel, to put one’s trust in technique.”

Aphorism 120: “Dependence should not become an attitude!” chapter 2

Full Quote: “But somehow marriage had made her childish; dependence had become an attitude.”

Aphorism 119: “Find comfort in shared pain!” Chapter 7

Full Quote: “..it is the place where the searchers meet, finding no one but each other and the comfort of a shared pain..”

Aphorism 118: “Anticipate having to endure leisure!” Chapter 8
Full Quote: “He had not anticipated having to endure leisure”

Rapping, Blogging, Preaching, Snowing

Aphorism 117: “Keep Grinding!” Ben B of UGK Rap Group

Full Quote: “’I appreciate the concern,’ he told Vibe. ‘But I wouldn’t ask anyone to stop their life because Pimp would’ve wanted us all to keep grinding.’” New York Times, Dec. 2007

Aphorism 116: “Establish an area of refuge!” Gretchen Rubin, Happiness Project Blog, a tribute to Winston Churchill

Aphorism 115: “Hold Truths Lightly!”, The Most rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal church as reported by Rebbecca Trounsen, Los Angeles Times as published in the Times Picayune, Nov. 24, 2007

Full Quote: “Perhaps, Jefferts Schori said, if all sides in the current debate over sexuality and Scripture could ‘hold their truths more lightly,’ they might yet find a way forward together.”

Aphorism 114: “Bestow little faith in intuitions or impressions!” by C.P. Snow about G.H. Hardy in Variety of Men

Full Quote: “Hardy had no faith in intuitions or impressions, how own or anyone else’s.”

Moral Aphorisms of Anthony Trollope from The Bertrams

Aphorism 113: “Alloy often clogs the gifts of fortune!”
Full Quote: “He determined, therefore, to accept the goods the gods had provided him, clogged though they were with alloy, like so many other gifts of fortune..”
Chapter Three, The Bertrams by Anthony Trollope

Aphorism 112: “Human nature is apt to be generous in the hot moments of impulse!”

Full Quote: “We are so apt to be generous in the hot moments of impulse, but so equally apt to be only coldly just in the long years of our ordinary existence.” Chapter Four, The Bertrams by A. Trollope

Aphorism 111: “The boldness of innocence!”

Full Quote: “What things? Said Adela, with all the boldness of innocence.” Chapter Four, The Bertrams, by A. Trollope

Aphorism 110: “We need not put up with the world as we find it!”

Full Quote: “You must put up with the world as you find it, Mr. Wilkinson.” Chapter Four, The Bertrams, by A. Trollop

Brookner, Heger, Pamuck, Rice: Random Pithy Thoughts

Aphorism 109: "Know it by its absence!" Ann Rice

Full Quote: "In my book, the one thing he will not know is the intimacy of marriage. He said, 'I will know it by its absence.'" as quoted in the Times Picayune march 5, 2008 by Susan Larson in her review of "Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana."

Aphorism 108: "Give everything you can, but first learn to take!" Anita Brookner, The Debut

Full Quote: "'I will give you everything I can,' he said, reaching for hand and meeting her wide eyes. 'But first you must learn to take.'"

Aphorism 107: "Provide a counterpoint!" Susan Heger

Full Quote: "The sharp formal lines of the pond connect the house to its grounds and provide a counter point to the scattered stepping-stone path." from the Times-Picayune Living, May 2007, "Getting back to green."

Aphorism 106: "Take pleasure in observation!" Orham Pamuk

Full Quote: "His face was illuminated not by the nearby candle, but by the pleasure of observations itself." Chapter One, My Name is Red.

Sports Aphorisms Part One

Aphorism 105: "Playing hurt is a matter of pride, responsibility and loyalty!" Unnamed New Orleans Saints football player as quoted by Darrell Williams of Times-Picayune.

Aphorism 104: "Go out and play hard baseball!" Tony Pena, while serving as Manager of Kansas City Royals

Full Quote: "..he vows the team will play aggressively. 'I believe you go out and play hard baseball.' he says." As quoted by Peter Barrouguere, Times Picayune, May 16, 2002.

Aphorism 103: "Consider Portaging An Opportunity!" by Jerry Dennis, From a Wooden Canoe.

Full Quote: "The indefatigable Siqurd Olson...considered portaging an opportunity, to hear sounds that are lost on the water, see things that until then had been hidden." p. 25

Aphorism 102: "Be a Good Finisher!" by Brian Doyle

Full Quote: " I firmly believe life is not how you start, it's how you finish. I want to be a good finisher." as quoted by Bill Syken of Sport Illustrated, April 28, 2003, p 10. Doyle was a hero of the 1978 World Series.

Jodi Picoult, Mercy

Aphorism 101: “No laird would expect his clan to do what he himself would not!” Chapter 3

Full Quote: “It was a technicality; any oath he’d made would naturally imply he’d be fighting alongside, since no laird would expect his clan to do what he himself would not.”

Aphorism 100: “Hope that heaven resembles Scotland!” Chapter 3

Full Quote: “He wondered what God was like. He hoped that heaven resembled Scotland.”

Aphorism 99: “The sad are victims of collective memory!” Chapter 3

Full Quote: “..he was really a victim of collective memory.”

Aphorism 98: “Duty is duty, a laird is a laird, and you cannot doubt your own blood!” Chapter 3

Full Quote: “’Duty is duty,’ Angus had said, ‘and a laird is a laird. And be there a clan or no’, lad, ye canna doubt your own blood.”

Aphorism 97: “Carrymuir had never been taken by Campbells or English or anyone else, was now overrun with tourists!” Chapter 3

Aphorism 96: “It is not possible to define freedom to someone who does not realize they are caged.” Chapter 4

Full Quote: “You simply could not define freedom to someone who did not realize they were caged.”