## Metadata - Author: [[James Geary]] - Full Title: Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists - Category: #books ## Highlights - Life is the only game in which the object of the game is to learn the rules. ([Location 494](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=494)) - I feel much better, now that I've given up hope. ([Location 497](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=497)) - In order to discover who you are, first learn who everybody else is, and you're what's left. ([Location 503](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=503)) - If you can't learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly. ([Location 505](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=505)) - Difficult questions should be answered before they are asked. ([Location 514](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=514)) - A step back can be incautious, too. ([Location 526](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=526)) - There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon. ([Location 548](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=548)) - He is a fool that hath nothing of philosophy in him, but not so much as he that has nothing else but philosophy in him. ([Location 550](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=550)) - All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income. ([Location 578](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=578)) - You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it. ([Location 612](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=612)) - COLEMAN, LES ([Location 735](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=735)) - True deception goes unnoticed. Wind supports all flags no matter what the flag supports. Headstone: death's bookmark. A bridge has no allegiance to either side. The distance a goldfish swims is not controlled by the bowl. Audience: play watched from the stage. The more a ball bounces the less it bounces. Puppets go to sleep the moment they break free from their strings. ([Location 741](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=741)) - CONNOLLY, CYRIL ([Location 754](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=754)) - Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice;journalism what will be grasped at once. ([Location 768](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=768)) - Promise is guilt—promise is the capacity for letting people down. ([Location 774](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=774)) - From now on specialize; never again make any concession to the ninety-nine percent of you which is like everybody else at the expense of the one percent which is unique. ([Location 779](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=779)) - COTRlC, ALEKSANDAR ([Location 781](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=781)) - You are either with us or against yourselves. How can we not be proud of our past when each new day is worse than the one before? We should fight to the last man? Only the last man can say that. ([Location 787](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=787)) - DARD, FREDERIC ([Location 793](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=793)) - Women are exchanged; children accumulate. In life, one is always alone. The important thing is to know with whom! Real independence consists in choosing on whom we depend. The future is nothing but some present rushing to meet us. The feeling of superiority starts as soon as, exiting a cinema, your eyes meet the eyes of those waiting in line to get in. Sincere people are executioners. A boss: the less he speaks, the more he is heard. One dies of everything, mostly of living. ([Location 797](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=797)) - DOVLATOV, SERGEI ([Location 809](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=809)) - The opposite of love is not disgust, nor even indifference. It is lies. Accordingly, the opposite of hatred is truth. ([Location 815](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=815)) - Genius is an immortal version of an ordinary human being. Humor is the inversion of life, the inversion of common sense, the smile of reason. Tourism is the vital function of the idle. Talent is like lust: hard to conceal and even harder to stimulate. ([Location 819](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=819)) - FIORI, FULVIO ([Location 825](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=825)) - Numbers are the only thing mathematicians can count on. The salmon swims against the current simply because he wants to be like the others. The wrong I commit is that I'm right. Lowering my head, I raise my salary. All my slavery is the fruit of a free choice. The ideal moments for thinking are the intervals between one thought and another. Hope dies last but sickens first. Admitting one's fear is already a good step toward panicking. ([Location 828](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=828)) - FREDRO, ALEKSANDER ([Location 840](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=840)) - A rich man who doesn't squander his wealth robs the whole world. ([Location 856](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=856)) - GERVASO, ROBERTO ([Location 868](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=868)) - The most beautiful moment of love is when you have the illusion that it will last forever; the worst is when you realize that it has already lasted too long. Paradise is full of saints who have never had occasion enough to sin. He who loves his neighbor as himself either doesn't know his neighbor very well or doesn't love himself enough. Common sense: the virtue of those who have no others. ([Location 881](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=881)) - With a little luck, many martyrs would have become executioners. ([Location 889](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=889)) - HUBBARD, ELBERT ([Location 964](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=964)) - A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience. ([Location 976](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=976)) - A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same. Be pleasant until ten o'clock in the morning and the rest of the day will take care of itself. Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed—there's so little competition. ([Location 977](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=977)) - Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit. ([Location 982](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=982)) - He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much. I would rather be able to appreciate things I cannot have than to have things I am not able to appreciate. If pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of trouble. Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace. Pray that success will not come any faster than you are able to endure it. The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you'll make one. The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it. Life is just one damned thing after another. ([Location 984](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=984)) - HUBBARD, FRANK MCKINNEY ([Location 997](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=997)) - A good listener is usually thinking about something else. ([Location 1009](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1009)) - An optimist is a fellow who believes what's going to be will be postponed. ([Location 1010](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1010)) - It is pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty and wealth have both failed. ([Location 1015](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1015)) - It's going to be fun to watch and see how long the meek can keep the earth after they inherit it. ([Location 1017](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1017)) - Kindness goes a long ways lots of times when it ought to stay at home. ([Location 1020](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1020)) - Men are not punished for their for sins, but by them. Nobody ever forgets where he buried the hatchet. The hardest thing is to take less when you can get more. The safest way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket. ([Location 1023](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1023)) - JACKSON, HOLBROOK ([Location 1030](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1030)) - KRAUS, KARL (Austria, 1874-1936) ([Location 1045](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1045)) - A real man is someone who will never do the dirty deeds he is thought capable of. A half-man, someone never thought capable of the dirty deeds he does. ([Location 1061](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1061)) - Views reproduce by division, thoughts by budding. ([Location 1072](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1072)) - The mission of the press is to spread culture while destroying the attention span. When someone has behaved like an animal, he says: "I'm only human!" But when he is treated like an animal, he says: "I'm human, too!" ([Location 1076](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1076)) - Love and art do not embrace what is beautiful but what is made beautiful by this embrace. ([Location 1082](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1082)) - Experiences are savings that a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance that a wastrel cannot exhaust. Let language be the divining rod that finds sources of thought. You don't even live once. ([Location 1084](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1084)) - Life is an effort that deserves a better cause. ([Location 1089](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1089)) - Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think. —JEAN DE LA BRUYERE ([Location 1092](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVM4C&location=1092))