“A good aphorism is a seed—often a barbed seed—that sticks in the mind of the reader and there germinates. An aphorism even when very brief has in it the embryo of a large train of thought. The reader feels a jar the moment the aphorism has hooked into his mind. Some aphorisms as they hit a mind stab and also titillate. The reader knows that something hit him.”
– Eric Hoffer, quoted in Eric Hoffer: The Longshoreman Philosopher, Tom Bethell
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“The aphorism is one of the earliest literary forms—the residue of complex thoughts filtered down to a single metaphor.”
– David Shields, Reality Hunger
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Offering up an aphorism is the opposite of ego writing.
You strip all the superfluous.
You realise that your presence is unnecessary
The aphorism doesn’t require instructions.
Just deliver the essence.
Let someone else’s mind take seed and cultivate it.
You have fulfilled your evolutionary purpose.
To pass on a copy of your thought.
You are no longer required.
Conversations With Quotations 